EU to link customs sites
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III The European Union is to set up computer links between customs authorities across the Continent in a bid to clamp down on multi-million-pound evasion of VAT and other duties.
The abolition of border controls inside the single market, with VAT and duties now paid at the final destination, has resulted in a bonanza for tax dodgers, says the EU. It claims that out of the 18 million transit journeys made during 1994, more than a million were fraudulent, costing the EU .£170m.
The new computer system, which transport ministers are due to confirm today (23 November), will replace easily forged documents: it will also include Norway, Poland, Hungary and the Czech and Slovakian republics.