Community Discusses the Effects of EMCS on IFLEXX
The Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS) will be launched in Germany on April 1, 2010. From this point on, customs clearance for transporting mineral oil products across borders will be handled electronically. At an IFLEXX meeting held by the software and consulting company Implico in Hamburg last Tuesday, mineral oil companies and tank farm operators came together to discuss how the new procedures will affect IFLEXX. OpenTAS, an administration, dispatch and automation system developed by Implico for the oil and gas industry, is currently being certified for EMCS by German customs authorities.
The EU-wide introduction of EMCS will affect the movement of excise goods, including mineral oil products, between member states. EMCS will make it possible for companies and customs authorities to monitor the movement of goods in real time. At the global headquarters of the Implico Group in Hamburg, leading mineral oil companies like Shell and tank farm operators like TanQuid talked about how EMCS will influence the new IFLEXX data format. Technical issues like error messages and cancellation procedures were also discussed.
EMCS will be introduced gradually to replace paper-based procedures and accompanying administrative documents (AAD) for international shipments. With EMCS, authorization for cross-border mineral oil shipments will be applied for electronically – after loading but before the shipment leaves the tank farm. Within three minutes, the electronic accompanying administrative document (e-AAD), including the reference code, will be returned to the consignor, thus authorizing the transport. In Germany, consignments will be registered via a customs web portal or with certified software like OpenTAS.
German customs authorities are currently in the process of certifying OpenTAS for EMCS. Implico expects the software to be certified quickly so that the company can provide its customers with a software update which includes EMCS functionality in time for the launch of EMCS. All of the activities necessary for EMCS will be integrated into OpenTAS, where they will run automatically in the background. Tank farms and refineries will benefit from the seamless integration of EMCS in their loading and shipment processes.
