COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT Accompanying the document Proposal for a Council Directive laying down the general arrangements for excise duty (recast)
Date: 2018-05-25
Institutions: Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission
Subjects: alcoholic beverage, electrical energy, energy-generating product, excise duty, free movement of goods, import (EU), suspension of customs duties, tax harmonisation, tax system, tobacco

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 25.5.2018  SWD(2018) 261 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT  Accompanying the document Proposal for a Council Directive laying down the general arrangements for excise duty (recast) {COM(2018) 346 final} - {SEC(2018) 255 final} - {SWD(2018) 260 final}  
 
 
Executive Summary Sheet 

Impact assessment on a Proposal for a Council Directive concerning the general arrangements for excise duty 
and repealing Directive 2008/118/EC (recast). 

A. Need for action 

Why? What is the problem being addressed?  
Whereas  Directive  2008/118/EC  is  seen  by  Member  States  and  Economic  operators  as  an  enormous 
improvement on its predecessor Directive 92/12/EEC several areas for improvement were identified: 
 lack of synchronisation of excise and customs procedures 
 duty paid business-to-business procedures (100,000 per year) are still paper-based 
 some provisions lead to different procedures being used in Member States and consequently to complexity for 

Economic Operators 

What is this initiative expected to achieve?  
The initiative seeks to keep a balance between the need to facilitate legitimate cross-border trade and the need 
to ensure that effective controls and monitoring are in place so that the excise debt is collected. 

What is the value added of action at the EU level?  
An  absence  of  action  at  EU  level  for  excise-customs  interactions  and  exceptional  situations  Member  States 
might implement different rules creating uncertainty and costs to economic operators. 
The  paper-based  procedures  for  the  duty  paid  business-to-business  movements  cannot  be  improved  without 
EU-wide  coordination  because  of  the  need  to  share  common  data  and  to  use  common  interoperability 
standards. 

B. Solutions 

What  legislative  and  non-legislative  policy  options  have  been  considered?  Is  there  a  preferred 
choice or not? Why?  
The following table summarises which solution(s) is envisaged for which problem: 

Synchronisation 
Data cross-check 
Automation 
Common Rules 

Excise-customs interactions 
X 
X 

X 

Duty paid business-to-business 

Exceptional situations 

X 
X 

X 

Who supports which option?  
Member  States  support  options  on  excise-customs  data  cross-checks  and  duty  paid  business-to-business 
automation, especially if they have a high volume of movements or if they have high excise duty rate because 
they are expected to reduce administrative costs and decrease fraud. 

Economic  Operators  support  options  on  duty  paid  business-to-business  automation  and  all  preferred  common 
rules as these options are expected to reduce their costs for cross-border trade. 

C. Impacts of the preferred option 

What are the benefits of the preferred option (if any, otherwise main ones)?  
The yearly benefits for Member States and Economic Operators are assessed at 14.55 and 32.27 million euros 
respectively.  

What are the costs of the preferred option (if any, otherwise main ones)?  
Business  to  business  automation:  one-off  initial  costs  and  yearly  recurrent  costs  for  Member  States  are 
assessed at 21.52 million euros. 
One-off initial costs and yearly recurrent costs for Economic Operators are assessed at 18.85 million euros. 

How will businesses, SMEs and micro-enterprises be affected?  
The automation of duty paid business-to-business procedures is expected to have a positive impact on SMEs as 

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they are the main users of this procedure.  
Common requirements for alternate proof of exit and exceptional situations may have a positive impact on SMEs 
as  will  reduce  the  overhead  of  disputes  with  other  Member  States  than  the  one  of  establishment  and  may 
increase competitiveness of SMEs. 

Will there be significant impacts on national budgets and administrations?  
Beside the costs and benefits referred to in the previous sections, no significant impact is expected on national 
budgets and administrations. 

Will there be other significant impacts?  
No impact is expected on other policies, such as fundamental rights, health or environment. 
No impact is expected either on other stakeholders, such as citizens or consumers. 

D. Follow up 

When will the policy be reviewed?  
The Commission will prepare a retrospective evaluation of the functioning of the new legislation five years after 
its entry into force. 

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