GUM - Guarantee Management System

Guarantee Management System

The Guarantee Management System will enable the granting and management of the authorisations for comprehensive guarantees and the monitoring of the guarantees, except for Transit which is handled in NCTS.

Guarantee management covers registration, verification of the existence and validity, monitoring of the reference amount and release of the guarantee. Also, a guarantee is a financial cover for customs duties and other chargers that are temporarily suspended and shall be required both for customs debts which have been incurred as well as those which may be incurred, unless otherwise specified.

New requirements for the Guarantee Management and the resulting business have stemmed  from the UCC, such as:

• an increase in the volume of cases where the guarantee management takes place: it is now required to provide the guarantee in the context of temporary storage and all special procedures, other than transit and free movement of goods.
• the possibility to have a guarantee valid in more than one Member State is introduced. This makes it possible to declare guarantees established in a MS other than the MS in which the customs declaration or declaration of temporary storage is granted;
• all communication shall be performed by electronic means, with a view to improve traceability, reliability and integrity of data, and shall allow for paper-based communication only in defined exceptional cases.

Consequently, the need for an IT system was identified to manage guarantees and ensure effective and efficient management of the different types of guarantees in order to:

• ensure the data of guarantees (which are used in more than one MS) are made electronically accessible to the MS where a customs declaration is lodged and accepted when such guarantee is used;
• speed up the identification of cases where guarantees are deemed invalid or insufficient to cover the debts – via improved processing speed, traceability and monitoring of guarantees electronically between customs offices;
• reduce the potential for fraud.

Architecture of the Guarantee Management System

The system has two components:

1. A CENTRAL COMPONENT referred to as GUM 1 covering the management of comprehensive guarantees that may be used in more than one Member State and the monitoring of the reference amount for each customs declaration, supplementary declaration or any appropriate information on the particulars needed for the entry in the accounts for the existing customs debts, or for customs debts which may potentially be incurred for temporary storage and all customs procedures as provided for in the Union Customs Code, with the exception of the Transit procedure which is handled as part of the NCTS project.
   
   As the Customs Decision System (CDS) already handles multi-MS COMPREHENSIVE GUARANTEE Authorizations and Applications, the IT System chosen for the central component is to reuse the existing central IT System referred as CDS to include the registration of the reference amount for a comprehensive guarantee (divided by customs procedure and by MS concerned), and to support the data exchange from the central IT system to the national guarantee management systems. 
   
   On 11 March 2024, a new release of the Customs Decisions System will be deployed to implement the central component, GUM 1. From that moment, it is possible for national components to interface with the central system. The national components are being deployed in a separate, specific timeframe.
    
2. The NATIONAL COMPONENTS referred to as GUM 2. The National Guarantee Management Systems will be in charge of the registration and operational phase of the guarantee, meaning managing the guarantee usage, releasing the reference amount (payment), monitoring the guarantees, etc.
   
   This national component is developed by each MS individually. This means there may be differences in how a national system GUM 2 will work in MS1 and MS2, but it must handle the same principles and functionalities for the GUM2.
   Based on the national plans for the deployment of the national components, Member States have the possibility to make their GUM 2 component available from the start of the operations of GUM 1 (11 March 2024) through to June 2025. Please contact the national authorities for the deployment of a specific national GUM system.

How the GUM system works

• The CDS platform is used as the central IT system for GUM since it already handles the multi-MS CGU Applications and Authorisations. The CDS is responsible for managing the Authorisation to use the comprehensive guarantee but not the guarantee itself. However, the central system aims at sharing the Authorisation details to the involved MS.

The CDS is composed of three systems: the Customs Decisions Management System (CDMS), Trader Portal (TP) and Customer Reference Services system (CRS).

With the CDS, the customs office of guarantee (which is in the MS where the guarantee is to be established) will be able to register the Authorisation details for the use of comprehensive guarantee.

(More information on the components of the CDS is provided in the Customs Decision Business User Guides [R07]).

• The EO will be able to submit, view and manage the comprehensive guarantee data via the Trader Portal (accessible via UUM&DS).
• CRS is available to customs officers and enables the MS to obtain customer information and qualifications via:
• Replication services triggered by subscriptions over CCN or CCN2;
• Data services over CCN or CCN2.

Figure 1

Access to the systems

• GUM 1: Central Component

All the necessary information on how to access both the CDMS and the TP is described in the Customs Decision Business User Guides [R07].

• GUM 2: National GUM System

 For access to the national applications, please refer to the national authorities.

Revision of the data structure in the legal acts

In 2022 and 2023, the structure of the data elements in Annex A has been revised on order to cope with the new needs of the GUM system. This exercise was successfully finalized as Commission Implementing Regulation 2024/250 and Commission Delegated Act 2024/249 which were published on 10 January and 12 February 2024 respectively.

This means that the structure in which the systems communicate with each other via electronic messages has changed drastically. A change of this magnitude therefore means that the structure that already existed for the data in the customs decision system had to be revised and made compliant with this newly approved legislation.

Online addresses to the systems

 

1. GUM via the Customs Decisions System - European Commission (europa.eu)
   For the management of the comprehensive guarantees, the GUM central component uses the Customs Decisions interface. For access to economic operators and customs authorities, please refer to the online addresses mentioned in the CDS webpage.

2. EU Customs Trader Portal - European Commission (europa.eu)
3. Central Uniform User Management and Digital Signature System – UUM&DS 

Relevant background material

More information can be found here:

• Course: UCC Guarantee Management System (GUM)
• Course: Customs Decisions System - CDS (europa.eu)
• Guarantee Quick Info
• Course : Guarantee, Topic: en (europa.eu)

Documentation about the systems: