Clear pipeline! Simplified procedure for pipeline oil from the Netherlands German and Dutch Customs reach agreement
Bonn (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@zoll.bund.de
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