Money lost to retailers is sustaining criminal gangs
Niall Butler works with Revenue in the Indirect Taxes Division. Within this division he looks at fuel fraud and was involved in introducing the new fuel legislation in January 2013.
Print15 November 2013
The second session of the Shelflife conference was entitled ‘Who suffers? The €1 Billion Impact on Retail and Revenue’. Niall Butler from Revenue was first to talk and he outlined his role in dealing with illicit fuel. He began by pointing out the tax risks with mineral oil fraud.
- White diesel excise is €479.02 per litre
- Green diesel excise is €102.28 per litre
- The VAT difference is aproximately €158
- Tax at risk per 1000 litres is €535
- €20,330 per 38,000 litre tanker
Current investigations
Niall Butler highlighted that this represents a substantial loss but added that it is difficult to measure. The money being lost to the exchequer is sustaining criminal gangs, it’s undermining legitimate business and it’s damaging the environment.
The fundamental strategy Revenue has put in place was underlined including strengthening and maintaining the licence compliance and monitoring the supply chain.
One of the key areas that will be important to focus on going forward will be identifying and tackling the criminals by gathering intelligence. Using the ROM1 data Revenue will identify rogue traders and will pick up anomalies and gaps in the supply chain. The srategy also includes a whole of tax approach to investigating and auditing, revoking licences due to non-compliance, tax assessments, seizure of product and prosecutions.
Strategy going forward
He discussed the Memorandum of Understanding that was developed between both the Irish Revenue and HM Revenue and Customs. This MOU hopes to deliver a new marker for diesel that will be more difficult for the criminals to use. In June 2012, there were joint invitations to make submissions. Since then, there have been in-depth laboratory investigations by Irish and UK state laboratories. The final evaluation was completed in October 2013 and is now under consideration by both authorities.
Another provision that will be introduced by Revenue will be the Reckless Trading Provision. This is to be included in the Finance Bill 2014.
Results
Results that Revenue have achieved from September 2011 to September 2013 inlcude:
- 106 fuel outlets shut down (licences refused/revoked)
- Aproximately 2 million litres of fuel seized
- 20 oil laundries detected
- 10 fuel tankers seized
- 13 persons arrested
- Various fuel outlets pumps and equipment seized
- Suspect traders currently under investigation
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