Article 78

Where the amount of import or export duty payable has not been paid within the prescribed period, the customs authorities shall secure payment of that amount by all means available to them under the law of the Member State concerned. The measures designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, by supplementing it, laying down measures in respect of securing payment from guarantors within the framework of a special procedure, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 184(4). Interest on arrears shall be charged on the amount of import or export duty from the date of expiry of the prescribed period until the date of payment. The rate of interest on arrears shall be the interest rate applied by the European Central Bank to its most recent main refinancing operation carried out before the first calendar day of the half-year in question (the reference rate), plus two percentage points. For a Member State which is not participating in the third stage of economic and monetary union, the reference rate referred to above shall be the equivalent rate set by its national central bank. In that case, the reference rate in force on the first calendar day of the half-year in question shall apply for the following six months. Where a customs debt has been notified pursuant to Article 67(3), interest on arrears shall be charged over and above the amount of import or export duty, from the date on which the customs debt was incurred until the date of its notification. The rate of interest on arrears shall be set in accordance with paragraph 2. The customs authorities may refrain from charging interest on arrears where it is established, on the basis of a documented assessment of the situation of the debtor, that to charge it would create serious economic or social difficulties. The measures designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, by supplementing it, laying down the cases, in terms of time and amounts, in which the customs authorities may waive the collection of interest on arrears, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 184(4).

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-07 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.