Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

41. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason fully tax compliant and legitimate transport hauliers who do not purchase diesel using a fuel card or through bulk deliveries are unable to avail of the diesel rebate scheme; the reason the diesel receipts used by the same businesses to claim back VAT cannot be accepted by the Revenue Commissioner for purposes of the diesel rebate scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8370/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I introduced this scheme in the Finance Act 2013 in order to provide for a repayment to qualifying road haulage and bus operators of a part of the mineral oil tax paid on their purchases of auto-diesel for use in the course of business.  The scheme is intended to support the competitive position of compliant transport operators using legitimate fuel while dealing effectively with the risk of widespread abuse by fraudulent claimants.

To address these matters, provision was made for certain restrictions on the means by which the auto-diesel claimed under the scheme may be purchased. Under these provisions fuel purchased other than in bulk or through an approved fuel card is not covered by the scheme.

Purchases in bulk by the qualifying transport operator must be made from a licensed mineral oil trader, and be delivered, in a quantity exceeding 2,000 litres, to a premises or place that is under the control of that road transport operator. Purchases by means of a fuel card, approved by Revenue for that purpose, may also qualify for repayment and there is no minimum requirement on purchases made in this way.  A fuel card will be approved where Revenue is satisfied that the fuel card provider will supply it electronically with information about purchases of auto-diesel by means of that card and subsequently claimed under the scheme. There are a number of fuel card providers who can supply suitable fuel cards to road transport operators and fuel retailers.

As part of the risk control measures under the scheme, claimants must register for and claim repayments electronically through Revenue's on-line system (ROS). This enables Revenue to take advantage of third party information to verify claims automatically. Bulk claims are verified against the monthly returns submitted by licensed mineral oil traders to Revenue under the supply chain controls introduced to tackle fuel laundering. This return shows information on all fuel transactions by the mineral oil trader during the month greater than 2000 litres, including such transactions with the qualifying transport operators. Claims for fuel purchased by way of a fuel card can be verified against the information supplied to Revenue by the fuel card provider. In addition to third party verification of claims, these arrangements allow Revenue to carry out extensive data analysis to identify suspicious claims and transactions, another aspect of Revenue's risk control framework.

The scheme provides for repayments of mineral oil tax under specific conditions that do not apply to the very different requirements of input credit under the VAT system.  Claims made on the basis of VAT receipts would be costly to administer and would not provide sufficient assurance against the risk of fraudulent claims. In the first instance, claims would not be verifiable, automatically and in real time, against third party data from the fuel card providers and mineral oil traders. Instead, Revenue would be obliged to check such claims manually and these checks would be highly resource-intensive, necessarily limited, and cause lengthy delays in processing legitimate claims. I believe that the current arrangements find the right balance between facilitating compliant transport operators and controlling the risk of fraud.

The requirements of the scheme, including those relating to fuel purchases, were explained at length during meetings between Revenue and representative bodies of the transport operators prior to its commencement.  Detailed information on the application of the scheme is published on .