Cap. 382 Art. 4Tax point.

(1) Excisable goods shall be subject to excise duty at the time of their production, or where applicable of their extraction, or of their arrival into Malta, provided that where excisable goods are placed under a customs procedure on arrival into Malta, entry shall be deemed to take place when they leave the customs procedure.

(2) Excise duty shall become chargeable at the time of release for consumption or when shortages are recorded.

(3) The chargeable conditions and rate of excise duty to be adopted shall be those in force on the date on which release for consumption takes place or shortages are recorded.

(4) Repealed by III.2026.47.

(5) For the purpose of this article where excisable goods are moved under a duty suspension arrangement within the territory of the Community, including where the goods are moved via a third country or a third territory, the time of release for consumption shall be considered to be:

(a) when a registered consignee receives the excisable goods from a authorised tax warehouse;

(b) when a consignee referred to in article 14(2) receives excisable goods from a authorised tax warehouse which have been dispatched from another Member State.

(6) Where excisable goods are imported into Malta and the Commissioner allows such goods to be moved under a duty suspension arrangement according to the conditions laid down by him to be delivered to a place which has been designated by an authorised tax warehouse keeper or registered consignee, the time of release for consumption shall be the time of receipt of the excisable goods at the place which has been approved by the Commissioner:

Provided that this shall not apply when a registered consignee receives goods on an occasional basis.

(7) For the purpose of this article, the total destruction or irretrievable loss of excisable goods under a duty suspension agreement, as a result of the actual nature of the goods, of unforeseeable circumstances, as a result of force majeure, or as a consequence of an authorisation granted by the Commissioner, shall not be considered as a release for consumption.

(8) The chargeable conditions and rate of excise duty to be adopted shall be those in force on the date on which release for consumption takes place.