(ots) - Tomorrow, the Central Customs Authority based in Bonn
and the Netherlands Customs will conclude a bilateral agreement on a
simplified tax procedure for the cross-border transport of petroleum
products via the Rotterdam-Rhine pipeline. Every year around 15
million cubic metres of taxable petroleum products reach their German
recipients via the pipeline running from Rotterdam along the Rhine.
The pipeline is operated in Germany and the Netherlands by separate
private companies. In order that the petroleum products need only be
taxed when they reach their recipients and not at the feed-in
companies or operators of the pipeline network, transports of the
petroleum products take place under the so-called intra-Community tax
suspension arrangement. Both the German and the Netherlands Customs
are responsible for monitoring this procedure. Uwe Schröder,
President of the German Central Customs Authority, emphasises: "We
wish to provide the operators with a legally secure and practical
procedure for the transport of petroleum products through the
pipeline." The agreement provides both the two operating companies
and the Customs with a basis for settling energy taxes on the
pipeline transports in harmony with EU directives. The normal EU
procedure is designed for separate transports; in practice it cannot
be applied to pipeline transports as it is not possible to delimit
individual transport processes where the pipelines are permanently
filled. The agreement that has now been concluded offers the German
and Dutch operating companies an unbureaucratic and easily manageable
settlement procedure for oil transports through the pipeline. The
Director General of the Netherlands Customs Aly van Berckel: "This
agreement is not only a result of the excellent cooperation between
the German and the Dutch customs, but also between customs and the
industry."
Pressekontakt:
Generalzolldirektion
Pressestelle
Yvonne Schamber
Telefon: 0228 303 11611
Pressestelle.GZD(at)zoll.bund.de
Original-Content von: Generalzolldirektion, übermittelt durch news aktuell