Chapter II of Part II of the Finance Act, 1992, is hereby amended by the insertion of the following section after section 116:

"116A.

(1) In this section -

'authorised officer' means an officer authorised in writing by the Commissioners for the purposes of this section;

'the Council Directive' means Council Directive No. 77/799/EEC of 19 December 1977 [O.J. No. L336 of 27 December 1977, p.15], as amended by Council Directive No. 79/1070/EEC of 6 December 1979 [O.J. No. L331 of 27 December 1979, p.8] and Council Directive No. 92/12/EEC of 25 February 1992 [O.J. No. L76 of 23 March 1992, p.1];

(2)

(a) The Commissioners and authorised officers may disclose to the competent authorities of another Member State any information concerning excise duties required to be so disclosed by virtue of the Council Directive.

(b) Neither the Commissioners nor an authorised officer shall disclose any information in pursuance of the Council Directive unless satisfied that the competent authorities of the other Member State concerned are bound by, or have undertaken to observe, rules of confidentiality with respect to the information which are not less strict than those applying to it in the State.