CELEX: 51984PC0739
Language: en
Date: 1985-01-07
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC ) ON THE ENTRY IN THE ACCOUNTS AND TERMS OF PAYMENT OF THE AMOUNTS OF THE IMPORT DUTIES OR EXPORT DUTIES RESULTING FROM A CUSTOMS DEBT

13.2.85                             Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 41/5
                  s
                                                           II
                                                   (Preparatory Acts)
                                             COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Regulation on the entry in the accounts and terms of payment of
              the amounts of the import duties or export duties or export duties resulting from a
                                                     customs debt
                                                  COM(84)     739final
                          (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 11 January 1985)
                                                     (85/C 41/05)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                    Whereas, in order to ensure real equality of treatment
COMMUNITIES                                                    between traders, it is advisable to fix also the periods
                                                               within which the amounts of import duties or export
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                   duties entered in the accounts must be paid; whereas
European Economic Community, and in particular                 the payment facilities which are granted in the
Articles 43 and 235 thereof,                                   Member States, other than deferment of payment,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,             ought to be maintained in a harmonized form;
                                                               whereas, in the interests of clarity, it is appropriate to
Having regard to the opinion of the European                   incorporate in a single text all the measures
Parliament,                                                    concerning the payment of import duties or export
                                                               duties, including those relating to deferment of
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and               payment currently contained in Directive 78/453/
Social Committee,                                              EEC;
Whereas the entry in the accounts of import duties or
export duties is of decisive importance for the                Whereas, where the customs authorities grant
implementation of customs legislation governing                payment facilities other than deferment of payment,
specific fields; whereas the conditions under which            credit interest must be charged in addition to the
such entry in the accounts must take place are                 amount of import duties or export duties; whereas,
currently defined      only in Council Directive               where the person liable for payment of such amount
78/453/EEC of 22 May 1978 on the harmonization                 has not discharged his obligation by the time limit set,
of provisions laid down by law, regulation or                  interest on arrears must be charged in addition to
administrative action concerning deferred payment of           such amount of duty;
import duties or export duties ('); whereas in other
cases the conditions under which the amounts of                Whereas, having regard for the constant growth in
import duties or export duties are entered in the              trade and the need to release goods as quickly as
accounts are determined by the Member States;                  possible, methods of control used by the customs
whereas this results in divergences in the application         authority have been adjusted so that this authority
of customs legislation governing specific fields,              only examines goods before release in a very small
leading to inequalities in the treatment accorded to           number of cases; whereas checks on compliance with
traders in the Community depending on the Member                the rules of imports and exports are thus deferred and
State in which they carry on their business;                    consist mainly of bookkeeping checks, which may
                                                                entail post-clearance recovery of an additional
Whereas it is therefore necessary to determine                  amount of duties; whereas the person liable for
generally at Community level the conditions under               payment of this amount should not have to bear the
which such entry in the accounts must take place;               consequences of these customs methods of control
                                                                and such post-clearance recovery should therefore
Whereas it can be left to the Member States to
                                                                not give rise to the payment of interest to the customs
determine the practical procedures for the entry in
                                                                authority; whereas such post-clearance checks may
the accounts of amounts of import duties or export
                                                                similarly give rise to repayment of an overpaid
duties; whereas, essentially, the important thing is to
                                                                amount; whereas the amount of duty charged will
fix the periods within which such entry in the
                                                                have been caculated on the basis of elements of
accounts must take place;
                                                                charge declared by the person concerned and the
                                                                latter has had access to his goods far more rapidly
O OJ No L 146, 2. 6. 1978, p. 19.                               than if they had been examined before release was
 ---pagebreak--- No C 41 /6                          Official Journal of the European Communities                                13.2.85
granted; whereas such repayment must therefore not             or remission of import or export duties (') as last
give rise to interest payments by the customs                  amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1672/82 (2)
authority either;                                              should contain an additional provision to this effect
                                                               and, on the other hand, the provisions concerning the
                                                               charging of interest must be deleted from Council
                                                               Regulation (EEC) No 1697/79 of 24 July 1979 on
Whereas when goods are released for free circulation           the post-clearance recovery of import duties or export
after     being   under    the    inward      processing       duties which have not been required of the person
arrangements, the customs debt arises at the time              liable for payment on goods entered for a customs
when the entry for free circulation is accepted and            procedure involving the obligation to pay such duties
not when the goods are put under such arrangements;            (3) and also from Council Directive 69/73/EEC of 4
whereas there is thus no reason to provide that such           March 1969 on the harmonization of provisions laid
release for free circulation must entail payment of            down by law, regulation or administrative action in
interest;                                                      respect of inward processing (4), as last amended by
                                                               Directive 83/89/EEC ( 5 );
Whereas, in view of the current conditions under               Whereas this Regulation concerns the entry in the
which credit policy is determined in the various               accounts and terms of payment of import duties and
Member States, it is not possible to fix a rate of credit      export duties, whether they result from the
interest and a rate of interest on arrears applicable          implementation of the common agricultural policy or
throughout the Community; whereas it is essential,             from that of the provisions of the Treaty concerning
however, to avoid, within a Member State, excessive            the customs union; whereas, as regards the latter
disparities of treatment between persons liable for            aspect, the provisions of the Treaty do not confer on
payment of credit interest pursuant to this Regulation         the Community institutions the power to adopt
and those who contract loans with credit institutions;         binding rules on the entry in the accounts and terms
whereas to that end, the rate of credit interest must          of payment of import duties or export duties; whereas
be fixed by the Member States on the basis of the rate         it is therefore necessary to base the provisions of this
ruling on their financial markets but may not be               Regulation also on Article 235 of the Treaty.
lower than the discount rate applied by the central
bank of the Member State concerned; whereas, in
view of its purpose, the rate of interest on arrears
                                                               HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
must not be lower than the rate of credit interest;
                                                                                           Article 1
Whereas, in the context of transit operations                  1.     This Regulation lays down the rules governing
guarantors enjoy more generous facilities as regards           the entry in the accounts and terms of payment of the
time limits for payment and payment of interest than           amounts of the import duties or export duties
those provided for in this Regulation; whereas those           resulting from a customs debt incurred under the
more favourable provisions appear in certain inter-            conditions      laid     down       in Council  Directive
national conventions and cannot be affected by the             79/623/EEC of 25 June 1979 on the harmonization
introduction of Community rules on the subject;                of provisions laid down by law, regulation or
whereas the same must apply to the Community                   administrative action relating to customs debt (6).
transit procedure in so far as that procedure is
applicable, under agreements concluded              with
Switzerland and Austria, to goods moving between               2.     For the purposes of this Regulation:
two points in the customs territory of the Community
through the territory of those two non-member
countries; whereas the same must also apply to the             (a) 'customs debt' means the obligation on a person
temporary importation of goods effected under the                   to pay the amount of the import duties (customs
conditions provided for in the Convention concluded                  debt on importation) or export duties (customs
at Brussels on 6 December 1961 (ATA Convention).                     debt on exportation) which apply under the
                                                                    provisions in force to goods liable to such duties;
Whereas Directive 78/453/EEC, the provisions of
which are incorporated in this Regulation, should be           (')  OJ No L 175, 12. 7. 1979, p. 1.
repealed; whereas, to take account of the above cases          (2)  O J N o L 186, 30.6. 1982, p. 1.
in which it is provided that no interest has to be paid        C)   O J N o L 197, 3. 8. 1979, p. 1.
by the persons liable for payment or the customs               (4)  OJ No L 58, 8. 3. 1969, p. 1.
authority, as the case may be, Council Regulation              C)   OJ No L 59, 5. 3. 1983, p. 1.
(EEC) No 1430/79 of 2 July 1979 on the repayment               C)   OJ No L 179, 17. 3. 1979, p. 31.
 ---pagebreak--- 13.2.85                               Official Journal of the European Communities                            No C 41/7
(b) 'person' means:                                              same legal effect as such acceptance the amount
    — a natural person, or                                       corresponding to such customs debt shall be entered
                                                                 in the accounts within two days of the date on which
    — a legal person, or                                         the customs authorities granted release of the goods.
    — an association of persons recognized as having
         a certain legal capacity but without the full           However, the total amount of duty relating to all the
         legal status of a legal person;                         goods released to one and the same person during
                                                                 the course of a period laid down by the customs
(c) 'entry in the accounts' means the official act by            authorities, which may not exceed 31 days, may be
    which the amount of import duties or export                  entered in the accounts in a single operation at the
    duties to be collected by the customs authorities is         end of the period. Such entry in the accounts shall
    duly determined;                                             occur within five days of the expiry date of the period
(d) 'import duties' means customs duties and charges             in question.
     having equivalent effect, and agricultural levies
     and other import charges laid down under the                2.     Where the amount of duty resulting from a
     common agricultural policy or under the specific            customs debt arising under the conditions referred to
     arrangements applicable to certain goods resulting          in paragraph 1 has been calculated at a level lower
    from the processing of agricultural products;                than the amount legally owed, the entry in the
                                                                 accounts of the amount of duty remaining to be
(e) 'export duties' means agricultural levies and other          recovered, in accordance with the provisions of Regu-
    export charges laid down under the common                    lation (EEC) No 1697/79, must occur within two
     agricultural policy or under the specific                   days of the date on which the amount legally owed
     arrangements applicable to certain goods resulting          was determined by the customs authorities.
     from the processing of agricultural products;
(f) 'customs authorities' means any authority                    3.     In cases other than those referred to in
     empowered to apply customs legislation, even if             paragraph 1, entry in the accounts must occur within
     that authority does not form part of the customs            two days of the date on which the customs authorities
     administration.                                             have the information necessary to
                           TITLE I                               (a) calculate the amount of duty in question, and
ENTRY IN THE ACCOUNTS OF THE AMOUNTS OF                          (b) determine the person liable for payment of that
         IMPORT DUTIES OR EXPORT DUTIES                               amount.
                          Article 2                                                      Article 4
1.     All amounts of import duties or export duties             The time limits for entry in the accounts referred to
resulting from a customs debt — hereinafter called               in Article 3 (1), (2) and (3) may be extended up to a
'amounts of duty' — shall be entered in the accounts             maximum of 14 days:
by the customs authorities.
                                                                 (a) either for reasons to do with the administrative
2.     The Member States shall determine the practical                organization of the Member States, and in
procedures for the entry in the accounts of the                       particular where the accounts are centralized;
amounts of duty. These procedures may differ
according to whether or not, in view of the circum-              (b) or where special circumstances prevent the
stances in which the customs debt was incurred, the                   customs authorities from abserving the said time
customs authorities are satisfied that the said amounts               limits.
will be paid.
Within thirty days of the entry into force of this                                       Article 5
Regulation, the Commission shall be notified of the
procedures by which the customs authorities will                 As soon as it has been entered in the accounts, the
enter amounts of duty in the accounts in the various             amount of duty shall be communicated to the person
possible situations.                                             liable for payment thereof, in accordance with
                                                                 appropriate procedures.
                          Article 3
                                                                 Where the amount of duty payable has been entered,
1.     Without prejudice to paragraph 2, where a                 for guidance, in the customs declaration, the customs
customs debt arises as a result of the acceptance of             authorities may specify that it shall not be
the declaration of goods for a customs procedure                 communicated in accordance with the first paragraph
other than temporary importation with partial relief             unless the amount of duty stated does not correspond
from import duties or from any other act having the              to the amount determined by the authorities.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 41/8                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                 13.2.85
Without prejudice to the application of the second               duty, the customs authorities shall, at that person's
subparagraph of Article 3 (1) where use is made                  request, grant deferment of payment of that amount
of the possibility provided for in the second                    under the conditions laid down in Articles 9 to 12.
subparagraph, release of the goods by the customs
authorities shall be equivalent to communication of                                        Article 9
the amount of duty entered in the accounts to the
person liable for payment thereof.                               The grant of deferment of payment shall be made
                                                                 conditional on the giving of security by the applicant.
                         TITLE II
                                                                                           Article 10
TIME LIMIT AND PROCEDURES FOR PAYMENT OF                         The competent customs authorities shall grant
THE AMOUNTS OF IMPORT DUTIES OR EXPORT
                         DUTIES                                  deferment of payment on the basis of one of the
                                                                 following procedures:
                        CHAPTER A                                (a) either separately in respect of each amount of
                         Principle                                     duty entered in the accounts under the conditions
                                                                       laid down in the first subparagraph of Article
                                                                       3 (1),
                         Article 6
                                                                  (b) or generally in respect of the total amounts of
All amounts of duty communicated in accordance                         duty entered in the accounts under the conditions
with Article 5 shall be paid by the person liable for                  laid down in the first subparagraph of Article 3
payment within the following time limits:                              (1) during a period not exceeding 31 days to be
(a) if the person is not entitled to any of the payment                fixed by the customs authorities,
     facilities laid down in Chapter B, payment shall             (c) or generally in respect of the total amounts of
     be made within the period prescribed. This period
                                                                       duty entered in the accounts in a single operation
     shall not exceed ten days following the date of
                                                                       pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 3
     entry in the accounts. It may be made generally
     applicable to the payment of duty resulting from                  (1).
     a customs debt incurred in given circumstances.
     Where the person concerned receives the                                               Article 11
     communication after the expiry of the time limit             1.     The period of deferment shall be 30 days.
     set for payment such payment shall be made
     within two days of receipt of the communication              2.     The period referred to in paragraph 1 shall be
     by such person.                                              calculated as follows:
 (b) if the person is entitled to any of the payment              (a) Where payment is deferred in accordance with
     facilities laid down in Chapter B, payment shall                  Article 10 (a), the period shall be calculated from
     be made before expiry of the time limit(s) set in                 the date on which the amount of duties is entered
     connection with those facilities.                                 in the accounts by the customs authorities.
                                                                       Where Article 4 is applied, the period of 30 days
                          Article 7                                    calculated in accordance with the first subpara-
                                                                       graph shall be reduced by the number of days
 Except where derogations are granted by the customs
                                                                       corresponding to the period in excess of two days
 authorities under specific provisions, payment shall be
                                                                       used to enter the amount in the accounts.
 made in a currency which is legal tender in the
 Member State in which the amount of duty is to be                (b) Where payment is deferred in accordance with
 paid. Payment may be made by means of set-off                         Article 10 (b), the period shall be calculated from
 where the rules in force so provide.                                   the date on which the period covered by the
                                                                        deferment expires. It shall be reduced by the
                        CHAPTER B                                       number of days corresponding to half the number
                                                                        of days in the period concerned.
                      Payment facilities
                                                                   (c) Where payment is deferred in accordance with
                                                                        Article 10 (c), the period shall be calculated from
                          Section 1
                                                                        the expiry date of the period during which the
                     Deferred    payment                                goods in question were released. It shall be
                                                                        reduced by the number of days corresponding to
                          Article 8                                     half the number of days in the period concerned.
 In so far as the amount of duty payable by the person             3.     Where the number of days in the periods
 concerned relates to goods entered for a customs                  referred to in paragraph 2 (b) and (c) is an odd
 procedure which entails the obligation to pay such                number, the number of days to be deducted from the
 ---pagebreak---   13.2.85                            Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 41/9
 thirty-day period pursuant to the provisions of those           referred to in Section 1. The granting of such
 subparagraphs shall be equal to half the next lowest            additional credit shall be made conditional on the
 even number.                                                    giving of security.
 4.     Where the periods referred to in paragraph 2 (b)         2.     Apart from the case referred to in paragraph 1
 and (c) are a calendar week or month, the amount of             the customs authorities may, where they consider it
 duties in respect of which payment has been deferred            justified, grant payment facilities either in the form of
 shall be paid:                                                  a period for payment, the length of which they shall
                                                                 determine in the light of the circumstances, or in the
 (a) where the period is a calendar week, on the                 form of payment by instalments.
      Friday of the fourth week following that calendar
      week;                                                      Such payment facilities may be granted only where no
                                                                 security has been given in respect of payment of the
 (b) where the period is a calendar month, on the                amount of duty in question. The granting of such
      fifteenth day of the month following that                  facilities shall itself be conditional on the giving of
      calendar month.                                            security.
                         Article 12                                                        Section 3
  1.    Deferment of payment may not be granted in                      Payment before the expiry of the time limits
 respect of amounts of duty which, although relating
 to goods entered for a customs procedure which                                           Article 14
 entails the obligation to pay such duty, are entered in
 the accounts:                                                   Whatever the payment facilities granted to the person
                                                                 liable for payment of an amount of duty, that person
 (a) either in accordance with the provisions in force           may in any case pay all or part of the amount without
     concerning acceptance of incomplete declarations,           awaiting expiry of the period for payment which has
     because the declarant has not, by the time limit           been granted him.
     set, provided the information necessary for the
     definitive valuation of the goods for customs                                         Section 4
     purposes or has not supplied the particular or the
     document      missing      when   the     incomplete                         Payment by a third party
     declaration was accepted:
                                                                                          Article 15
 (b) or for the purposes of post-clearance recovery.
                                                                Any amount of duty may be paid by a third party
2.      However, deferment of payment may be granted            instead of the person liable for payment.
 in the cases referred to in paragraph 1 where the
amount of duty to be recovered is entered in the                                         CHAPTER C
accounts before the expiry of a period of 30 days
from the date on which the amount originally                                             Enforcement
charged was entered in the accounts or, if it was not
entered in the accounts, from the date on which the                                       Article 16
declaration relating to the goods in question was
accepted. The duration of the deferment of payment              Where the person liable for payment of an amount of
granted in such circumstances may not extend beyond             duty has not discharged his obligation within the
the date of expiry of the period which, pursuant to             period prescribed, the customs authority shall,
Article 11, was granted in respect of the amount of             without prejudice to the possibilities that may be open
duty originally set, or which would have been granted           to it for ensuring payment of the amount by calling in
if the amount of duty lawfully due had been entered             a security or by sale of the goods in accordance with
in the accounts when the goods in question were                 the provisions in force, initiate against that person the
declared.                                                       procedure laid down by the rules on the enforcement
                                                                of public claims.
                         Section 2                                                        TITLE III
                 Other payment facilities                                        PAYMENT OF INTEREST
                        Article 13                                                        Article 17
1.     The Member States may grant the person liable            Where the customs authorities grant any of the
for payment of an amount of duty credit in addition             payment facilities provided for in Article 13, credit
to that resulting from the deferment of payment                 interest shall be charged on the amount of duty.
 ---pagebreak--- NoC41/10                              Official Journal of the European Communities                               13.2.85
                        Article 18                                                       Article 22
Where the person liable for payment of an amount of              This Regulation shall apply without prejudice to the
duty has not discharged his obligation within the                more favourable provisions laid down with regard to
period prescribed, interest on arrears shall be charged          guarantors under the transit procedure and the
on such amount.                                                  Convention for the temporary admission of goods
                                                                 concluded at Brussels on 6 December 1961 (ATA
The same rule shall apply where the amount of duty
                                                                 Convention).
payable is guaranteed by a guarantor who fails to
make payment by the time limit.
                                                                                         Article 23
                        Article 19                               1.    Directive 78/453/EEC is hereby repealed.
The rate of credit interest shall be fixed by the                References to that Directive shall be construed as
Member States or the basis of the rate ruling on their           references to this Regulation.
financial markets. It may not be lower than the
discount rate applied by the central bank of the                 2.    Articles 6 and 7 of Regulation (EEC)          No
Member State concerned. The rate of interest on                  1697/79 are hereby repealed.
arrears may not be lower than the rate of credit                 3.    The following Article 17a is hereby added to
interest.                                                        Regulation (EEC) No 1430/79:
                                                                      Article 17a
                         TITLE IV
                                                                     Repayment by the competent authorities, pursuant
                   FINAL PROVISIONS                                  to this Regulation, of amounts of import duties or
                                                                     export duties shall not give rise to the payment of
                        Article 20                                   interest by those authorities.'
1.    Without       prejudice      to     the     possible       4.    Directive 69/73/EEC is hereby amended as
implementation of any measures associated with                   follows:
offences against the customs rules, no interest on                   (a) in Article 15 (2), the phrase 'and the payment
amounts of duty payable by a person liable for                            of any outstanding arrears of interest due' is
payment shall be charged in cases other than those                        deleted;
referred to in this Regulation.
                                                                     (b) in Article 16, the phrase 'without prejudice to
2.    The provisions of this Regulation shall not                         any outstanding arrears of interest due' is
prevent the granting of damages to the person liable                      deleted.
for payment where it is established that the customs
authorities were responsible for charging an amount                                      Article 24
greater than the amount of duty legally owed.
                                                                 This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
                                                                 1986.
                        Article 21
                                                                 It shall apply to amounts of duty entered in the
This Regulation shall apply without prejudice to any             accounts on and after that date.
provisions providing that the customs authorities need
not enter in the accounts amount of duty of less than            This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
2 ECU.                                                           directly applicable in all Member States.