S.I. No. 366/1984 - European Communities (Customs) (No. 2) Regulations, 1984.

S.I. No. 366 of 1984.

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (CUSTOMS) (No. 2) REGULATIONS, 1984.

I, ALAN M. DUKES, Minister for Finance, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), and for the purpose of giving effect to Council Directive No. 79/695/EEC of 24 July, 1979⁽¹⁾ hereby make the following Regulations:

⁽¹⁾O.J. No. L205, 13.8.1979.

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Customs) (No. 2) Regulations, 1984.

2. These Regulations shall be deemed to have come into operation on the 1st day of January, 1984.

3. (1) In these Regulations:

"appropriate officer" means any officer of customs and excise or any other officer of the Revenue Commissioners;

"the Commissioners" means the Revenue Commissioners;

"the Directive" means Council Directive No. 79/695/EEC of 24 July, 1979⁽¹⁾;

⁽¹⁾O.J. No. L205, 13.8.1979.

"entry" is, without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (2) of this Regulation, the entry which pursuant to Article 2 of the Directive is in the Directive referred to as "the entry";

"import duties" means customs duties chargeable in the State (but does not include value-added tax or excise duties chargeable on goods imported into the State) and charges having equivalent effect, as well as agricultural levies and other import charges laid down within the framework of the common agricultural policy of the European Economic Community or of the specific arrangements applicable, pursuant to Article 235 of the Treaty, to certain goods resulting from the processing of agricultural products;

"release for free circulation" means release for free circulation within the meaning of Article 10 (1) of the Treaty;

"the Treaty" means, without prejudice to the generality of the said paragraph (2), the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community.

(2) A word or expression that is used in these Regulations and is also used in the Directive shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning in these Regulations that it has in the Directive.

4. Subject to the provisions of Article 1 (1) of the Directive as regards the special provisions therein referred to, those Regulations apply to the release for free circulation of goods which:

( a ) have been produced to customs and which may have been placed in temporary storage in accordance with the conditions laid down in Council Directive No. 68/312/EEC of 30 July, 1968⁽²⁾, or

⁽²⁾ O.J. No. L194, 6.8.1968.

( b ) are under another customs procedure.

5. Subject to these Regulations, every provision of the Customs Acts, or of any instrument relating to the Customs and made under statute, being a provision in respect of the entry and release of goods for home use, shall apply, with any modification necessary to give effect to the Directive, to the entry and release for free circulation of goods referred to in Regulation 4 of these Regulations.

6. Without prejudice to any provision which is a special provision referred to in Article 17 of the Directive, the Commissioners may specify that the lodging of a written entry is unnecessary for goods which are either imported for non-commercial purposes or are of low value (including those contained in travellers' personal baggage) and are goods referred to in Regulation 4 of these Regulations.

7. (1) Without prejudice to Regulation 11 of these regulations, where written entry is required as regards goods referred to in Regulation 4 of these Regulations, subject to compliance with Article 18 (4) of the Directive, the Commissioners may authorise the declarant to furnish or to insert at a later date certain particulars of the entry in the form of supplementary entries of a general, periodic or recapitulative nature.

(2) Statements (in a supplementary entry) furnished or inserted pursuant to paragraph (1) of this Regulation, together with statements made in the entry to which it refers, shall be deemed to constitute a single, indivisible instrument taking effect at the date on which the corresponding initial entry was accepted.

8. (1) Subject to paragraph (2) of this Regulation, where the circumstances so justify, the Commissioners may authorise release for free circulation of goods referred to in Regulation 4 of these Regulations as soon as, pursuant to paragraph (2) of Article 5 of the Directive, they have been presented for the purposes of paragraph (1) of the said Article 5 without the relevant entry having previously been lodged.

(2) ( a ) The release for free circulation pursuant to this Regulation of goods shall be conditional on the presentation at a customs office of a commercial or administrative document, at the discretion of the Commissioners, containing the particulars necessary for the identification of the goods concerned and such document shall be accompanied by (or bear) a request in writing for such release signed by the person concerned.

( b ) Where, by reason of the provisions of any enactment or Statutory Instrument or any Act referred to in section 2 of the European Communities Act, 1972 , the release for free circulation of a particular type of goods (being goods referred to in Regulation 4 of these Regulations) is subject to the presentation of any other document, that document shall accompany the commercial or administrative document presented pursuant to subparagraph (a) of this paragraph.

( c ) Where a commercial or administrative document referred to in subparagraph (a) of this paragraph complies with all the necessary requirements, it shall be accepted by the appropriate officer immediately in accordance with the relevant procedures under the Customs Acts or any instrument relating to the Customs and made under statute.

( d ) Acceptance by a customs office of a commercial or administrative document referred to in subparagraph (a) of this paragraph shall have the same force in law as acceptance of the entry.

( e ) The date of acceptance of the commercial or administrative document referred to in subparagraph (a) of this paragraph shall for the purposes of these Regulations be noted on that document.

(3) The Commissioners may, if they consider it necessary, make release pursuant to this Regulation of goods conditional on their examination based on the particulars contained in the commercial or administrative document referred to in paragraph (2) (a) of this Regulation.

(4) The entry relating to goods covered by an authorisation referred to in paragraph (1) of this Regulation shall be lodged at the customs office concerned within the time limit laid down by the Commissioners.

(5) Without prejudice to Regulation 11 of these Regulations the Commissioners may allow the lodging of general, periodic or recapitulative entries for the goods covered by an authorisation referred to in paragraph (1) of this Regulation and such entries shall be deemed to have taken effect on the date on which the appropriate officer accepted the commercial or administrative document referred to in paragraph (2) of this Regulation relating to those goods.

9. (1) Nothing in these Regulations shall be construed as precluding the Commissioners from exercising any controls which they consider necessary in order to ensure that the procedures under the Customs Acts or any instrument relating to the Customs and made under statute are correctly carried out.

(2) The Commissioners may make the granting of the facilities provided for in Regulation 7 of these Regulations or an authorisation under Regulation 8 of these Regulations subject to the lodging by the person concerned of security, the nature and amount of which they shall determine.

10. (1) Where the Commissioners are satisfied that a person frequently presents goods for release for free circulation they may authorise the person to receive the goods, directly after they have been conveyed to a customs office pursuant to the requirements of Article 2 of Council Directive No. 68/312/EEC of 30 July, 1968, into a place designated by the Commissioners for that purpose so as to obtain their release without first lodging an entry relating to the goods in the customs office.

(2) ( a ) Upon arrival of goods to which an authorisation under this Regulation relates at a place designated pursuant to this Regulation, the authorised person shall:

(i) for the purposes of obtaining release of the goods, notify the appropriate officer of their arrival and such notification shall be in the form and manner for the time being laid down by the Commissioners;

(ii) make in his records, in the form and manner for the time being so laid down, an entry regarding the goods;

(iii) make available to the appropriate officer any document which is a document referred to in Article 20 (2) (c) of the Directive.

( b ) Completion of the formalities referred to in clauses (i) and (ii) of subparagraph (a) of this paragraph shall have the same force in law as acceptance of an entry relating to the goods concerned.

(3) Provided that checking on the regularity of transactions is not thereby affected, the Commissioners may:

( a ) instead of requiring the authorised person concerned to wait for the actual arrival of goods before notifying a customs office thereof, permit him, as soon as their arrival becomes imminent, to inform such an office of their impending arrival;

( b ) in the circumstances specified in Article 20 (3) (b) of the Directive, exempt such authorised person from the obligation to notify a customs office of each arrival of goods, on condition that that person provides such office with all the information so specified to enable it to exercise, where appropriate, its right to examine the goods.

(4) Where the Commissioners grant an exemption under paragraph (3) of this Regulation, entry of the relevant goods in the records of the authorised person concerned shall be equivalent to their release.

(5) Where an appropriate officer decides to examine goods to which an authorisation under this Regulation relates, such examination shall take place on the basis of the particulars contained in the relevant records of the authorised person concerned.

(6) The entry relating to goods to which an authorisation under this Regulation relates shall be lodged at the customs office within the time limit laid down by the Commissioners.

(7) Without prejudice to Regulation 11 of these Regulations, the Commissioners may allow the lodging of general, periodic or recapitulative entries for the goods to which an authorisation under this Regulation relates, and for the purposes referred to in Article 11 (1) of the Directive such entries shall take effect on the date on which the goods are entered in the records of the authorised person concerned.

(8) The entry of the goods in the records of the person concerned, as provided for in paragraph (2) (a) of this Regulation, may (pursuant to Article 20 (7) of the Directive) be replaced by any other formality offering similar guarantees which may be laid down by the Commissioners.

(9) In this Regulation "authorised person" means a person who is authorised by an authorisation under this Regulation.

11. The Commissioners may, subject to such conditions as they shall determine, authorise a person to replace all or part of the particulars of any entry relating to goods referred to in Regulation 4 of these Regulations by sending to the Commissioners codified data or data made out in any form or manner specified by them, corresponding to the particulars required for the entry.

12. (1) Without prejudice to the special rules referred to in paragraph (1) of Article 11 of the Directive and subject to paragraph (2) of that Article, for the purpose of applying Regulations 8 and 10 of these Regulations import duties shall be levied in accordance with the rates and amounts in force—

( a ) on the date on which the relevant commercial or administrative document referred to in paragraph 2 (a) of Regulation 8 of these Regulations is accepted by the customs office concerned, or, as may be appropriate,

( b ) on the date on which the goods are entered in the records of the person concerned pursuant to the requirements of Regulation 10 (2) (a) of these Regulations.

(2) Without prejudice to the special rules referred to in paragraph (1) of this Regulation and subject to Article 11 (2) of the Directive, the date specified in subparagraph (a) of paragraph (1) of this Regulation, or as may be appropriate, the date specified in subparagraph (b) of that paragraph, shall as regards goods referred to in Regulation 4 of these Regulations be the operative date for determining the particulars referred to in Article 11 (1) of the Directive as other particulars material to the calculation of import duties on goods and for applying any other provisions governing the release of goods for free circulation.

13. Notwithstanding anything otherwise contained in these Regulations, an authorisation under these Regulations may be—

( a ) limited to certain goods specified in the authorisation,

( b ) granted either on an occasional or on a permanent basis,

( c ) revoked by the Commissioners.

14. Nothing in these Regulations shall be construed as affecting the exercise by the Commissioners, as regards any goods which are goods referred to in Regulation 4 of these Regulations and for the purpose of ensuring that a provision of these Regulations is complied with, of any power exercisable by them under the Customs Acts or any instrument relating to the Customs and made under statute.

GIVEN under my Official Seal this 20th day of December, 1984.

ALAN M. DUKES,

Minister for Finance.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

These Regulations, which come into operation on 1 January, 1984 implement at national level special procedures provided for in Community Directive 79/695/EEC which determines general rules for the release of goods for free circulation in the Community.