Luxemburg, 22/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - In its judgment in case C-313/05 of 18 January, the Court of Justice says that excise duties in Poland on vehicles imported from another Member State must be comparable to those which are already registered in the country. The system used in Poland to calculate the amount of excise duty to be paid on imported cars was anti-competitive, because it discriminated against such cars on the Polish market. An amendment to the Polish legislation in question came into effect in December 2006. The European Commission is currently examining this amendment.
Mr Maciej Brzeziñski bought a Golf, manufactured in 1989, in Germany, which he then imported into Poland. After submitting a simplified declaration relating to the acquisition of that vehicle in the Community, he paid PLN 855 (€222) by way of excise duty. Taking the view that such a duty was contrary to the provisions of the EC Treaty, he requested reimbursement of the excise duty he had paid.
After trying unsuccessfully with the customs authorities, Mr Brzeziñski brought an action before the Wojewódzki S¹d Administracyjny w Warszawie (the Warsaw regional administrative court). That court referred questions on the compatibility of the Polish excise duty with Community law to the Court of Justice of the European Communities for a preliminary ruling.
The EC Treaty does not impose harmonisation of excise duties. As the Court press officer for cases involving Poland and Slovakia stressed, “The Treaty leaves (Member States) room for manoeuvre”, which allows them to impose excise duties on various products, and these duties can vary from one State to another. The main thing is that their implementation does not favour domestic products to the detriment of imports from the rest of the Community. Any such unequal application of excise duties infringes Article 90 of the Treaty, which states that there should be no imposition, direct or indirect, on products from other Member States of internal taxes of any kind, higher than those imposed directly or indirectly in similar domestic products.
By virtue of this article, the Court judgment notes that the costs of having an imported car registered in Poland should not lead to excise duties exceeding the residual amount of the same duty incorporated into the purchase price of similar vehicles already registered in Poland. The Court press officer has confirmed that this does not seem to have been the case here, and that a review was required.
This particular case is part of a more general examination by the Commission of the used car market in Poland and in other Member States. Through various means, from more demanding technical inspections to discriminatory excise duties, several Member States discriminate against imported used cars. The Commission has already undertaken various procedures against Poland, Finland, Denmark (see EUROPE 9333), Luxemburg, the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary (see EUROPE 9222).
As far as Poland is concerned, there are two parallel investigations. The first, quite separate from Mr Brzeziñski's case, concerns the excessively high number of technical controls to which imported cars are subjected. After sending a reasoned opinion to Warsaw in July 2006, the Commission lodged an appeal with the Court in December against the non-conformity of these controls with Community competition law. The Commission considers that Poland could not use the protection of public order and health and environmental protection to justify additional controls (see EUROPE 9227).
The second investigation, on excise duties applied to imported cars, is more closely related to the recent Court judgment. The case in point relates to the investigation which began in July 2006, when the Commission sent Poland other reasoned opinions on the anti-competitive nature of the methods used to calculate these excise duties (see EUROPE 9227).
To avoid being taken to the Court once again, the Polish authorities reviewed the legislation on excise duties. The new rules came into force on 1 December 2006. The Commission, however, is still not fully convinced and has initiated a pre-litigation procedure with regard to this new legislation. The Commission spokeswoman for taxation and the customs union said that, while this stage of the investigation is ongoing, no information can be revealed. After being contacted by EUROPE, the Polish Permanent Representation to the European Union did not wish to comment. If Warsaw fails to respond or delivers an insufficient response within two months, the next step will be a further reasoned opinion. (cd)