Wrangle over booze cruise limits set to continue

6.38.38pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 8th Oct 2004

The dispute between UK Customs and Excise and the European Commission over penalties for shoppers importing alcohol and tobacco looks set to continue as a meeting between the two bodies this week broke up with out resolution. With the deadline for a response set to pass tomorrow (Saturday 9th October), the UK has asked for an extension to the deadline, and will give a response on Monday (11th October) or Tuesday (12th October) .

The dispute centres on EU single market rules where shoppers can buy any amount of drink and tobacco abroad without paying excise duties as long as it for themselves and not for onward commercial sale. However, customs officials have taken to seizing the goods and also shoppers' cars in many hundreds of cases on a mere suspicion of possible commercial sale.

West Midlands Liberal Democrat MEP Liz Lynne said:

"The penalties the UK Customs inflict on ordinary shoppers are entirely disproportionate to what is often a 'minor fiscal offence of a not-for-profit character'."

"We are not talking about white-van man and the commercialised operations that exist but families who are buying goods in the single market for their own use. I fear that with no resolution this week the UK will be dragged through the courts - a potentially embarrassing experience for the Government and its Chancellor.

Gordon Brown does not seem to have shoppers' rights at the top of his agenda. Perhaps rather than continually undermining the European Union as a force for economic prosperity, he might actually defend the single market and the British consumer's right to buy cheap goods abroad."

ENDS