5.

For the precise purpose of complying with the obligations deriving from the abovementioned provisions of the Act of Accession, the Spanish legislature adopted Law No 8/1991, which made changes to the system of local taxes prevailing in Ceuta and Melilla, replacing the earlier municipal tax on the entry of goods (the ‘aforo’) with a new charge, known as the ‘arbitrio’. The charge is now payable not only on the introduction of movable goods into the territories concerned, as it was earlier, but also on the domestic production of such goods, with the aim, specifically indicated in the preamble to the Law, of eliminating any discrimination based on the origin of the goods. Having regard, moreover, to the particular difficulties holding back economic development in the territories in question, difficulties which in the past justified the application of a tax regime different from that applicable to the rest of national territory, the Law laid down a number of measures, albeit of a temporary nature, for the protection of local industry. Pursuant to Article 1, ‘the arbitrio on production and importation is an indirect municipal charge levied on the production and manufacture in and imports into the cities of Ceuta and Melilla of all categories of tangible movable goods, in accordance with the provisions of the present Law’. Article 3 goes on to state that taxable operations comprise the production of goods by way of trade by economic agents in pursuit of their business activity and importation of the same goods into the territories to which the Law applies, and, by virtue of Article 5(1), the second category includes goods originating in other regions of Spain. The chargeable event for the tax is, by virtue of Article 11, the placing of the goods at the disposal of the buyer, in the first case, and, in the second, presentation of the import declaration. The basis of assessment is, for domestic production, the aggregate amount due to the transferor at the time of transfer of the goods, whereas for goods from outside it is their customs value (Articles 15 and 16). Determination of the rates applicable to the various products is delegated, subject to the minimum and maximum limits laid down by the Law (0.5% and 10%), to the municipal administration concerned (Article 18), which is required to fix them by means of the implementing measures for the adoption of which they are responsible. In the case of Ceuta, those measures were adopted by order of 24 September 1991. ( 3 ) Articles 7 and 9 of Law No 8/1991 indicate, finally, the products and imports that are to be exempt from payment of the charge. The categories of goods which benefit from those exemptions are in fact largely the same in both cases. However, Article 7(2) applies special rules for the benefit of local industry, to the effect that ‘total or partial exemptions may be granted temporarily for goods produced or processed by industries established in the territory of the cities of Ceuta and Melilla forming part of the sectors protected by Law No 50 of 27 December 1985 on regional incentives for economic development intended to rectify the imbalances existing between the various parts of the national territory’. In that regard, it should be pointed out that Article 14 of the abovementioned municipal order of September 1991 provides that the exemptions in question may be obtained, under the conditions and for the period indicated in the measure granting them, in response to reasoned applications from interested parties.