DUTY PAID

Smokers and drinkers have long complained that they, along with car owners, seem to be paying a disproportionate amount in to government coffers. Those who smoke, drink and drive a car are particulalry displeased, subsidising, as they are, those who do none of these. Successive governments have never really explained why the duty on these items needs to be so high, and it's ironic that if the revenue raised is essential for continued financial stability of the country then, were we to follow the government's advice to stop drinking and smoking, and chose alternative means of transportation, this revenue would cease completely.

Claiming that high duty is required to counter the increased costs to the health service as illnesses caused by smoking and drinking present themselves is a simplistic argument if the savings made by people choosing to terminate their lives before needing long term health care or even drawing a pension aren't taken into account. Closer economic unity and cross-border integration has meant that it is now easier than ever before to purchase goods abroad without the complexities there once were. The European market is open to all. Where UK residents would complain about the cost of goods purchased in Britain when compared with cheaper goods overseas, they now have the choice of jumping in their cars, going abroad and bringing back their goods from wherever they feel like.

Whilst the winners are celebrating their liberation, the government is outraged. But it's legal and it's the free market that both the Tories and New labour want us to embrace with open arms. But when we do, we are condemned by the very same government which declares itself to be fighting the consumer's corner against 'Rip-Off Britain', but is the biggest instigator of Rip-Off itself. Complaints that they are loosing millions of pounds in unpaid duty are met with ambivalence by those who are benefitting from the cross-border market. The only supporters the government have are those who don't partake in using the imported goods, and see themselves soon to be footing the shortfall, and those who aren't able to undertake international purchasing or have such a little islander mentality that they reject the concept out of hand.

If the government wants to stem the tide of cheap imports it has two choices; either banning imports, which would be against European Law, or reducing the duty so it was not economic to purchase from oversea sources. The government is in a lose-lose situation. If it doesn't reduce duty then the trade in imports will continue and it will lose revenue it hopes to see, if it does reduce duty then it gives up its hope of even seeing that duty in the first place.

The government is considering introducing a £1.5bn 'windfall tax' against tobacco companies in a bid to claw back taxes that have been lost because of smuggling. They accused the companies of profiting by exporting billions of cigarettes 'knowing' they would be brought back. At the same time, the government spends millions of pounds a year in a bid to get people to quit smoking which, presumably, would result in a loss of tax. How this shortfall would be re-couped has not been announced.

Customs and Excise officers told a boatload of customers from Britain's first offshore off-licence to pay duty on their purchases. Phil Berriman and Trevor Lyons were selling cut-price alcohol and cigarettes 12 miles off Hartlepool. The pair said duty had already been paid on the goods they bought abroad. Customs officials warned potential customers that purchased goods could be seized if they fail to declare them.

The action cast doubts on the future of the boat, the Cornish Maiden. Customers can buy a carton of 200 cigarettes for £15, around one third the price in a mainland shop. Mr Berriman said, "The basic rule in the European Union is that you cannot pay duty or VAT twice for anything. We have already paid 11.4 euros duty for every packet of cigarettes on that boat." Customs confiscated more than £100,000 worth of stock from the off-licence owners' previous vessel Rich Harvest when it had to return to Hartlepool Marina to shelter from a storm.

Mr Berriman said every customer was being given an information sheet to clarify the legal situation. He said, "The sheet says that Customs tell us that customers should declare the goods, and obviously that they disagree with paying the duty, and that they should give the reasons why, that we shouldn't have to pay duty twice."

A HM Customs spokesman said, "We have made it clear to him and the general public that anyone who buys goods in international waters, but who does not actually travel to another country has to pay excise duty. Anyone who fails to do this, or assists anyone to escape paying duty, is committing an offence." Customs and Excise now appear to be changing the rules to suit themselves.