5 July: The Joint Customs Consultative Committee (JCCC) has updated traders about ongoing issues with the New Computerised Transit System (NCTS5).
The use of certain Office of Transit and Office of Destination codes are creating a "rule G0034 error" and the NCTS5 system is rejecting declarations.
The group are confident that the problem arose due to other countries' administrative systems using Automated Export System (AES), which is not in use in either Great Britain or the island of Ireland.
While JCCC says it is working with those administering the Common Transit Convention to resolve the issue, it is advising traders to take the following steps as a workaround:
- Under 'goods item', don't use N830 (Export Declaration) as the document type in the ‘previous document' field
- Use an alternative code, such as NMRN (Declaration/Notification MRN), in the 'previous document type' field
- Continue to provide the Export Movement Reference Number (MRN)
4 July: JCCC is warning traders that use transit procedures to bring goods into the UK that they should check to ensure their declarations were made under the new computer system to avoid delays at the border.
Transit is a procedure where goods are moved between multiple nations without having to fill out a customs declaration in each territory.
The New Computerised Transit System (NCTS5) was introduced on 1 July for the UK, and 28 June for Northern Ireland, replacing the old phase 4 version.
Border delays
The JCCC has said that a number of vehicles are waiting at Inland Border Facilities (IBF) due to having local reference numbers (LRN) that were created in the old system and which have not been switched over to the new system.
HMRC says that these goods movements “cannot be released by customs officials [in the new system]” as the “messaging structure” is different between the two versions.
Next steps
HMRC is advising that goods must not be sent to the border if the declaration was created under the pre-1 July system. Any declaration created in the old system must be resubmitted into NCTS5.
If a driver is on route to an IBF, or any other border facility, with an old LRN, HMRC advises that they be told not to carry on until a new LRN has been created.
Any goods that arrive at an IBF or border facility with an LRN created in the old system will be “turned away” and asked to return with a declaration submitted in NCTS5.
Additional issues
In addition, HMRC has warned that anyone using the Simplified National Transit Movements faces a similar issue.
Anyone moving goods from a GB authorised consignor or customs office to a GB authorised consignee - or from a Northern Ireland authorised consignor or customs office to a Northern Ireland authorised consignee - is being warned about the possible discrepancies.
Movements under the simplified procedure that were created using the old phase 4 system “are unable to be arrived" in NCTS5 "in the usual manner,” says HMRC.
“This is because national transit movements declared in [phase 4] before the cutover, are not recognised by the NCTS5 system, which means we are unable to populate NCTS5 with the required declaration information to facilitate the simplified arrival procedure at the authorised consignee location.”
Anyone who received national transit movements before 9am on 28 June in Northern Ireland, or 6pm 1 July in Great Britain, must follow the Business Continuity Procedure (BCP), which was used during the NCTS downtime.
Discrepancies
For the BCP, when you have received the transit movement and are ready to submit your IE007 arrival notification to NCTS 5, you should:
- Assume receipt of the IE043 unloading permission message and continue with the unloading process
- Take note of any discrepancies, as you would normally, to complete an IE044 unloading remarks message
If any discrepancies occur, HMRC advises that they should be reported to the supervising office and that the responsible persons should wait until they receive permission to change to another procedure.
