AICES CEO, Amanda Francis, responds to Low Value Outcomes in the Autumn Budget 2025

AICES, Chief Executive Officer, Amanda Francis, said;

"AICES members understand the UK Government’s decision to respond to global trends and end the duty de minimis for low value parcels by March 2029.  We welcome the Government’s decision to prioritise minimising administrative costs and maintaining flows across the border of these significant low value imports for UK businesses and consumers. 

In particular, AICES supports the decision to collect any duties and any potential handling fee upstream – at check out –in line with the current supply VAT regime and with the same liabilities on the overseas seller. This has the advantage of transparency for the consumer and avoids millions of individual declarations and issues with goods being held.

However, the new low value imports regime will still require fundamental operational and systems changes for express operators, our customers and indeed HMRC and Border Force. AICES therefore welcomes the pragmatic and sensible decision to allow sufficient time to prepare for a new low value regime by planning for a March 2029 introduction.  We look forward to discussions with HMRC on the detail of the consultation."