(1)

Council Regulation (EC) No 179/2009 of 5 March 2009 amending Annex I to Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (1) suspended totally, for a period of two years, the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties for certain black and white or other monochrome, and certain colour monitors using liquid crystal display technology and falling under Combined Nomenclature (CN) codes 8528 59 10 and 8528 59 90 .

(2)

On economic and industrial policy grounds, it is in the interest of the Union to prolong the autonomous duty suspension provided for in Regulation (EC) No 179/2009 for a period of six months starting from 1 January 2011.

(3)

Following a restructuring of CN heading 8528 , the monitors in question are now covered by CN codes 8528 59 10 and 8528 59 40 . The tariff suspensions provided for in this Regulation should therefore concern those CN codes.

(4)

Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 (2) should therefore be amended accordingly.

(5)

The suspensions provided for in this Regulation are an extension of the suspensions provided for by Regulation (EC) No 179/2009 that expired on 31 December 2010. Since it is not in the interest of the Union that there be any interruption of the tariff treatment of the monitors covered by the suspension, this Regulation should apply from 1 January 2011,

(1)

the text in column 3 for CN code 8528 59 10 is replaced by the following:

‘14 (*1)

(*1)  Customs duty autonomously suspended, until 30 June 2011, for black and white or other monochrome monitors, using liquid crystal display technology, equipped with either digital visual interface (DVI) or a video graphics array (VGA) connector or both with a diagonal measurement of the screen not exceeding 77,50 cm (i.e. 30,5 inches), with an aspect ratio of 1:1, 4:3, 5:4 or 16:10, with a pixel resolution exceeding 1,92 mega pixels, and with a dot pitch not exceeding 0,3 mm. (TARIC code 8528 59 10 10).’;"

(2)

the text in column 3 for CN code 8528 59 40 is replaced by the following:

‘14 (*2)

(*2)  Customs duty autonomously suspended, until 30 June 2011, for colour monitors, using liquid crystal display technology, with a diagonal measurement of the screen not exceeding 55,9 cm (i.e. 22 inches), with an aspect ratio of 1:1, 4:3, 5:4 or 16:10. (TARIC code 8528 59 40 40).’."

(1)

By letter registered with the Secretariat General of the Commission on 19 November 2010, Lithuania requested authorisation for a measure derogating from Article 287(11) of the VAT Directive in order to exempt taxable persons whose annual turnover is no higher than EUR 45 000 (the measure). The measure would release those taxable persons from certain or all of the value added tax (VAT) obligations referred to in Chapters 2 to 6 of Title XI of the VAT Directive.

(2)

In accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 395(2) of the VAT Directive, the Commission informed the other Member States by letter dated 21 January 2011 of the request made by Lithuania. By letter dated 25 January 2011, the Commission notified Lithuania that it had all the information necessary to consider the request.

(3)

A special scheme for small enterprises is an option which is already available to Member States under Title XII of the VAT Directive. The measure derogates from Title XII of the VAT Directive only in so far as the taxable person’s annual turnover threshold for the special scheme is higher than that currently allowed for Lithuania under Article 287(11) of the VAT Directive, which is EUR 29 000.

(4)

A higher threshold for the special scheme is a simplification measure as it may significantly reduce the VAT obligations of the smallest businesses, whilst that special scheme is optional for taxable persons and allows businesses to opt for the normal VAT arrangements.

(5)

In its proposal for a Directive simplifying valued added tax obligations of 29 October 2004 (2), the Commission included provisions aimed at allowing Member States to set the annual turnover ceiling for the VAT exemption scheme at up to EUR 100 000 or the equivalent in national currency, with the possibility of updating this amount each year. The request submitted by Lithuania is in line with this proposal.

(6)

The derogation will have no impact on the Union’s own resources accruing from VAT and will only have a negligible effect on the overall amount of VAT revenue of Lithuania collected at the stage of final consumption,