title: Council Directive 69/76/EEC of 4 March 1969 on the harmonisation of provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action for deferred payment of customs duties, charges having equivalent effect and agricultural levies

text:
                                   Official Journal of the European Communities
 No L 58/14                        Official Journal of the European Communities                                 8.3.69
                                              COUNCIL DIRECTIVE
                                                  of 4 March 1969
               on the harmonisation of provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative
               action for deferred payment of customs duties, charges having equivalent effect and
                                                  agricultural levies
                                                     (69/76/EEC)
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                      Whereas in all Member States there are provisions
                                                               laid down by law, regulation or administrative action
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                  for deferred payment of customs duties, charges
 European Economic Community, and in particular                having equivalent effect or agricultural levies due in
 Article 100 thereof;                                          respect of goods which are subject of a customs
                                                               declaration entailing a liability to make payment
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ;           thereof;
 Having regard to the Opinion of the European                  Whereas    certain  differences   contained   in  those
 Parliament1 ;
                                                              provisions could lead to deflection of trade and of
                                                               customs receipts if persisting after the customs union
Having regard to the Opinion of the Economic and               has been fully achieved ;
 Social Committee2 ;
 Whereas the Community is based upon a customs                Whereas such provisions directly affect the
union ;                                                        establishment and operation of the common market ;
Whereas the establishment of the customs union is              Whereas provision should be made for payment of
governed in the main by Chapter I of Title I of Part           the amount due to the Customs to be deferred ;
 Two of the Treaty ; whereas that Chapter contains a           whereas a convenient solution, applicable in all
 series of specific provisions dealing, in particular,         Member States, would be a standard time limit for
with the elimination of customs duties between                payment of an average of thirty days;
Member States, the establishment and progressive
introduction of a Common Customs Tariff and the               Whereas it is expedient to provide that further
autonomous alteration or suspension of the duties             payment facilities may be accorded only upon the
therein; whereas, while Article 27 provides that              same terms as are applied in like circumstances on
Member States shall, before the end of the first stage        the money or capital market in the State concerned ;
and in so far as may be necessary, take steps to
approximate their provisions laid down by law,
                                                              HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE :
regulation or administrative action in respect of
customs matters, that Article does not empower the
institutions of the Community to issue binding                                        Article 1
provisions in that field; whereas however, a thorough
examination undertaken jointly with Member States              This Directive shall apply only to goods which are
has shown the need in certain fields for decision, by         the subject of a customs declaration entailing a
binding acts of the Community, upon measures                  liability to pay customs duties, charges having
essential for the introduction of customs legislation         equivalent effect or agricultural levies .
which will ensure uniform application of the
 Common Customs Tariff;                                                               Article 2
1 OJ No C 55 , 5.6.1968, p. 34.                               The person liable to make payment shall at his
s OJ No C 58, 13.6.1968, p. 7.                                request be granted, free of interest, subject to the
 ---pagebreak--- 90                                 Official Journal of the European Communities
giving of an appropriate security and in accordance           2. Where the number of days in the period
with the provisions laid down by national law,                referred to in paragraph 1 is an uneven number, the
regulation or administrative action, deferment of             number of days to be deducted shall be equal to one
payment of customs duties, of charges having                  half of the even number immediately below that
equivalent effect and of agricultural levies due in           uneven number.
respect of the goods referred to in Article 1 .
Deferment of payment may involve such person in               3 . The period referred to in paragraph 1 shall not
certain expenses .
                                                              extend beyond the time limit for payment referred to
Subject to Articles 3 , 4 and 5 , the time limit for          in Article 2 .
payment shall be fixed at thirty days and shall be
calculated from the date on which the amounts due
                                                                                A' rticle 5
are entered in the accounts of the authority
responsible for collection thereof, such date being not
more than dwo days after the day on which removal             If the date for payment, determined in accordance
of the goods was authorised.                                  with Articles 2, 3 or 4, falls on a non-working day,
                                                              the time limit for payment shall be extended until the
Subject to the same reservation as that contained in          first working day following that date.
the second paragraph, where, in a Member State, the
time limit for payment applicable as at 1 July 1967
was shorter or longer than thirty days, that Member                                   Article 6
State shall be allowed until 31 December 1970 to
bring that time limit into line with the prescribed           Where a Member State grants further payment
time limit of thirty days ; from 1 October 1969,              facilities in addition to the deferment of payment
however, the time limit shall not exceed forty-five           referred to in Articles 1 to 5, the expenses borne by
days .                                                        the person liable to make payment, and in particular
                                                              any interest, must be calculated in such a way that
                                                              the amounts are equivalent to those which would be
                        Article 3                             charged for this purpose on the money market or
                                                               financial market in the State concerned.
1.     Where import transactions effected during any
particular period are dealt with together so as to give
                                                                                Article 7
rise to only one entry in the accounts at the end of
that period by the authority responsible for collecting
payment, the time limit for payment referred to in            The Member States shall bring into force not later
Article 2 shall be reduced by a number of days equal          than 1 October 1969 the measures required to
to one-half of the number of days in that period.              comply with this Directive.
2. Where the number of days in the period                                             Article 8
referred to in paragraph 1 is an uneven number, the
number of days to be deducted shall be equal to one          Each Member State shall inform the Commission of
half of the even number immediately below that                 the provisions it is making in implementation of this
uneven number.                                                 Directive.
3.     The period referred to in paragraph 1 shall not        The Commission shall communicate the information
extend beyond the time limit for payment referred to          to the other Member States .
in Article 2 .
                                                                                Article 9
                        Article 4
                                                              This Directive is addressed to the Member States .
1 . Where the payment facilities referred to in
Article 2 are granted globally in respect of a number
of customs declarations for which entries have been           Done at Brussels, 4 March 1969 .
made in the accounts during any given period, the
time limit for payment referred to in Article 2 shall                                            For the Council
be calculated with effect from the end of that period                                             The President
and shall be reduced by a number of days equal to
 one-half of the number of days in that period .                                                   G. THORN