Compendium of Commission decisions regarding remission and recovery of own resources.

Customs File 169/15/27

Request for refund of duty on presentation of a retrospectively issued Certificate of Origin

Trader correctly declared the import of ‘Ductile Iron Pipes’ from India under Taric code 7303001000.

Amount of refund requested: Euro10,410 - Duty

Taric measures as on 23rd February 2015 provided for a ‘0’ rate of duty on products falling under said Taric code and imported from India subject to presentation of a Form A GSP Certificate of Origin. However, the Certificate of Origin was not yet available at time of entering relative import declaration. Consequently, duty at 3.2% was paid by the economic operator.

A retrospective Form A Certificate of Origin may be issued by the beneficiary country as provided for by article 971 of the Customs Code Implementing Procedures (reproduced below).

1. Certificates of origin Form A, a model of which is set out in Annex 17, shall be issued on written application from the exporter or its authorised representative, together with any other appropriate supporting documents proving that the products to be exported qualify for the issue of a certificate of origin Form A.

3. The competent governmental authorities may issue a certificate retrospectively only after verifying that the information supplied in the exporter’s application agrees with that in the corresponding export file and that a certificate of origin Form A satisfying the provisions of this section was not issued when the products in question were exported. Box 4 of certificates of origin Form A issued retrospectively must contain the endorsement ‘Issued retrospectively’ or ‘Délivréà posteriori’.

Retrospectively issued Form A Certificate of Origin was submitted to the Customer Section at Customs together with a properly filled in copy of Form 111 officially requesting refund of duty previously paid in the absence of the Form A Certificate of Origin at time of release.

CUSTOMS FILE 169/14/6

Refund of duty on presentation of retrospectively issued GSP

Economic operator imported Frozen Squid classified under 0307493800 from Vietnam. At time of importation the GSP Form A certificate, enabling a preferential rate of duty, was not yet available. Consequently a retrospectively issued certificate was presented to Customs attached to the Refund Request Form 111.

Certificate was referred to Customs Economic Processing Unit to confirm its authenticity and technical validity.

Once Customer Service Office established that the time frame for presentation of such certificate was complied with, refund was authorised and referred to Customs Debt Unit to proceed with refund.

Cust File 301/15/20 Refund of duty under drawback – Euro1471.04

Economic operator is authorised to import goods under the Inward Processing Procedure. Since only a percentage of compensating products are re-exported to third countries, the procedure provides that duty is paid on the raw material at time of importation. Once compensating products are exported to third countries the economic operator becomes eligible to claim a refund of the duty paid on the raw materials used in the exported compensating products.

Claim by economic operator is forwarded to the Customs Economic Procedures Unit where request for refund is checked against authorisation, value and duty at point of entry.

Once processing officer is satisfied that the requested amount is correct, the relative Customs file is forwarded to the Asst. Director Processing Services. Approval is authorised by Director General upon receiving recommendation from Asst. Director Processing Services.

Customs File 8/15/83

Recovery of Euro6396 duty and Euro10742 Vat following a Valuation Exercise.

Economic operator imported a container load of clothing originating in China. On physical examination of the goods it was concluded by Examining Officer and Officer in charge station that the values declared were much lower than their actual value.

Samples, representing all items, were forwarded to the Valuation Unit which confirmed that the values declared were very low. Prices were uplifted to reflect their actual value as provided forin Chapter 3 of the Community Customs Code.

Customs File 7/16/123 – Recovery of Euro 1007 Duty and Euro180 Vat following classification exercise

Economic operator imported a full load 40 foot container consisting of household, beach furniture, and camping related items.

In his declaration, economic operator grouped all the goods under 8 different items namely: ladders, wooden furniture, metal furniture, plastic items, beach umbrellas, camping tents, energy saving lights and strip lights.

Declaration was not selected for physical control and, at time of issue of Gate Pass, a copy of the supporting documents was retained at Customer Services Unit. Subsequently these documents were forwarded to the Post Clearance Verification Unit. When declaration was checked against its relative commercial invoice by the Verification Unit officer it was noted that the goods should have been declared under14 items bearing different classifications and attracting a variety of rates of duty. Legislation requiring the correct declaration of classification is provided for under Title II Chapter 1 of the Community Customs Code. These new classifications resulted in a claim for underpayment of Euro1007 duty and Euro180 vat. Post entry claim showing all 14 items is attached.