Financial implications of the Bill
470 This Bill contains the powers to impose Customs duty on goods and vary the amounts of duty which will be payable (for example, by varying or suspending duty at import). Customs duties collected will, like all tax income, flow into the Consolidated Fund. This Bill also contains powers to amend the VAT and excise duty regimes, and use of these powers may also have associated revenue implications for the Consolidated Fund.
471 In addition to these revenue implications, powers contained in this Bill could result in additional expenditure from the Consolidated Fund. For example, additional expenditure not otherwise covered under the Supply and Appropriation (Main Estimates) Act 2017 could be necessary for HMRC in order to implement and operate the new Customs regime.
472 Most parts of this Bill will not result in immediate financial implications because the way in which the powers will be used will depend on the outcome of negotiations with the EU and on policy decisions yet to be taken, meaning it is not possible at this stage to provide an estimate of the impact on either the Consolidated Fund or the National Loans Fund.
473 For the same reason, it is also not possible to estimate the impact of this Bill on total public expenditure at this stage.
474 The explanatory memorandum accompanying each statutory instrument made by the Treasury or the Secretary of State under a power in this Bill will include details of the financial implications of the instrument, if any, providing ongoing transparency on the financial implications of the use of the powers in the Bill.
475 Clause 41 provides for the possible abolition of acquisition VAT and application of import VAT. Commencement of the provision will be at a time to be specified by the Treasury in regulations and, in turn, this time is dependent on the outcome of the negotiations with the EU. This may have financial implications, but this will depend on future policy decisions which will be set out through secondary legislation.