THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EUROPEAN COURT
OF AUDITORS FOR 1996
COMMUNITY REVENUE
25. The Court found delays in establishing and recording
customs dues and in making them available to the Community. From
their examination of a sample of some 3,000 customs declarations
across all Member States, the Court concluded that at least £2.2
million still needed to be paid over to the Commission. European
legislation imposes a three year time limit on establishment and
recovery of customs dues and agricultural levies payable to the
Community. From a sample of 23 cases, the Court estimated that
£59 million had been lost as a result of the time-bar when
Member States had not respected relevant regulations or had not
uniformly applied them.
26. The Court noted that more than half of all Community
imports benefited from preferential tariff arrangements and significantly
more than half of all cases of identified fraud and irregularity
were committed against the preferential arrangements scheme. The
Court reported cases where Member States had failed to collect
preventative guarantees against loss of revenue, and other duties
imposed on goods considered to have been illegally dumped on Community
markets under preferential arrangements.
Conclusion
27. We are concerned that the systems for ensuring
recovery of customs and other duties payable to the Community
have not always operated effectively. We expect the department
to continue to rectify problems arising in the United Kingdom
and we urge the Government to press for improvements in procedures
throughout the Community.
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