BBPA issues ten point plan to tackle duty fraud

By Michelle Perrett

- Last updated on GMT

BBPA issues ten point plan to tackle duty fraud
The British Beer & Pub Association  has issued a ten point plan to HM Customs and Excise  to tackle beer duty fraud.

The aim of the plan to is to to complement a the current alcohol fraud strategy, and eliminate the need for beer stamps or supply chain legislation.
 
The measures being put forward by the BBPA have been shared with the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group, which is currently conducting the Beer Fraud Inquiry over the issue.

 
The ten points:
 
1. BBPA to collate duty-in-suspense sales from brewers by trade channel to assist in (a) monitoring the volume and trends in this market and (b) produce a robust upper and lower bound estimate of beer fraud.

2. Individual brewers to continue to supply HMRC with a regular detailed breakdown of sales to customers in duty-to-suspense to both UK and EU, including volumes.

3. Brewers to continue to review due diligence processes and implement rigorous know-your-customer programmes.

4. Brewers to provide timely information and intelligence on suspicious trading patterns and from due diligence actions.

5. Brewers to investigate cost-effective technologies and how voluntary UK-specific labelling  could enhance tracking capabilities  and respond in a timely manner to track-and-trace requests from HMRC

6. HMRC to provide a dedicated point of contact for brewers to feed-in intelligence on suspected fraudsters

7. HMRC to seek similar commitments on traceability, provision of customer information, intelligence  sharing and due-diligence programmes from wholesalers and other beer and wine supply chain agents

8. HMRC to pursue enhancements to EMCS (Excise Management & Control System, an EU-wide system where any movements of duty-suspended beer are recorded on a central database) to help assist in identifying fraud and fraudsters.

9. HMRC and UK Border Agency to actively pursue ways of  improving the monitoring and tracking of consignments of alcohol entering UK ports and act accordingly to start re-balancing the risk and reward away from those involved in alcohol smuggling.

10. A joint anti-fraud task force is set-up to monitor and evaluate progress against actions, share insights and consider any additional proposals.
 

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