HMAG120466 - The Drawback event: exports to a non EU country (direct and indirect)

General information
Where an S8 print cannot be provided
Export risks
Retrospective exports
Objectives of an export verification

General information

During the assurance of a drawback export claim you should be satisfied that the export has actually taken place. When UK duty paid goods are exported to a destination outside the EU, in accordance with requirements placed by the CODE and Implementing Regulations, they must be declared on CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight).

There are two types of export:

a direct export- where the eligible goods leave the territory of the EU directly from an UK port or airport. For example, the goods are exported directly to America from Liverpool.
an indirect export - where eligible goods leave the territory of the EU from an EU Member State that is not the UK, but the movement originated from the UK. For example, the goods move from the UK via road on route to Switzerland via France. In this case, the French Swiss border is the point at which the goods export the EU.

Evidence of export for both direct and indirect exports is normally shown on a CHIEF/CDS generated S8 print with a ‘departed’ CHIEF status code of 60 for a direct export or a departed status code of 62 for an indirect export. For both types of export the evidence presented is based on data held on the CHIEF / MSS system which should be checked to verify that the S8 print presented with the claim is genuine. A copy of this should be presented with the drawback claim evidence.

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Where an S8 print cannot be provided

The S8 print is not automatically generated when every export consignment is departed on CHIEF. Businesses declaring export consignments (mainly export freight agents rather than the actual exporter), can control the generation of CHIEF generated export reports and may elect to suppress these as CHIEF also provides update messages, including export entry acceptance, arrival and departure (ICS status 60 or 62) messages in the form of a ‘CUSRES’ (Customs response message). This message transfers to third party software provider systems . As such, there is a valid argument why some businesses may provide a package of alternative prints to evidence confirmation of export instead of the S8 print. The ‘Declaration response’ is one such document which provides useful data as it shows ICS departure status of 60 or 62. These are word documents that could be manipulated but if DCAT staff or assurance officers have suspicions of the authenticity of such reports the Declaration Unique Consignment Reference (DUCR) or the CHIEF export entry numbers are vital to any assurance activity and either reference can be interrogated by accessing CHIEF MSS (information on MSS is retained for 3 years). Alternatively if the export declaration is less than 6 months old officers can contact the National Clearance Hub (NCH) who have access to CHIEF ‘live’ services.

Interrogation of either MSS or CHIEF will also confirm the declared commodity code, description and quantities etc to compare to the commercial documents submitted with the drawback claim.

Where a CHIEF generatedS8 cannot be provided we should accept alternative evidence which shows the correct ICS status, DUCR and date of export.

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