HC Deb 27 January 1994 vol 236 cc354-5W
Mr. John Townend

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what level of trade, in terms of money and jobs, has been lost in the United Kingdom as a result of the differential in excise duties on alcoholic beverages and tobacco as levied by France and by the United Kingdom since the creation of the single market.

Sir John Cope

Customs do not maintain records in these terms. However, duty receipts for alcoholic beverages and tobacco are generally up on previous years, as detailed below. This suggests that much cross-border shopping represents new consumption.

£ million
Product 1991 1992 1993
Tobacco products 5,963 6,417 7,394
Spirits 1,681 1,675 1,724
Wines 899 967 1,043
Beer 2,282 2,376 12,228
Cider/Perry 74 85 100
1 The change to end-product duty entailed a one-off cash flow loss in 1993 of about £200 million (indicating an underlying increase of about 2 per cent.).

Mr. John Townend

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many prosecutions there have been, and what was the value of goods involved, where persons have been prosecuted for importing excisable beverages or tobacco products purporting to be for their personal use, over the last 12 months.

Sir John Cope

During 1993 Customs and Excise prosecutions have been concluded in 51 cases involving the illegal disposal of excise goods purported to have been imported for personal use. The estimated value of the goods involved was about £500,000. A further 76 cases are in the prosecution system but have not yet been concluded.

In the 11 months to 30 November 1993, Customs made 1,016 detections of illicit practices involving £1,624,543 revenue, equating approximately to a retail value of about £2.7 million. In addition to the prosecutions mentioned above, Customs limited their action in 338 cases to seizure only of the goods, of which 161 of those cases involved also the seizure of vehicles. The balance of 551 cases have been settled under Customs' power to compound proceedings on payment of penalties in lieu of prosecution or are awaiting the outcome of considerations as to the course of action to be taken.

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