Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 27 February 2014 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña (Spain)) — Transportes Jordi Besora SL v Generalitat de Catalunya
(Case C-82/12) 1
(Indirect taxes — Excise duties — Directive 92/12/EEC — Article 3(2) — Mineral oils — Tax on retail sales — Concept of ‘specific purpose’ — Transfer of powers to the Autonomous Communities — Financing — Predetermined allocation — Health-care and environmental expenditure)
Language of the case: Spanish
Referring court
Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña
Parties to the main proceedings
Appellant: Transportes Jordi Besora SL
Respondent: Generalitat de Catalunya
Re:
Request for a preliminary ruling — Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña — Interpretation of Article 3(2) of Council Directive 92/12/EEC of 25 February 1992 on the general arrangements for products subject to excise duty and on the holding, movement and monitoring of such products (OJ 1992 L 76, p. 1) — Mineral oils — Special tax on retail sales of certain hydrocarbons — Indirect taxes other than excise duty pursuing specific purposes — Tax pursuing an aim capable of being achieved by another harmonised tax — Tax established simultaneously with the transfer of certain powers to the regions and directed, in part, at supporting expenditure of the regions linked to the new powers transferred — Purely budgetary purpose
Operative part of the judgment
Article 3(2) of Council Directive 92/12/EEC of 25 February 1992 on the general arrangements for products subject to excise duty and on the holding, movement and monitoring of such products must be interpreted as precluding national legislation that establishes a tax on the retail sale of mineral oils such as the tax on retail sales of certain hydrocarbons (Impuesto sobre las Ventas Minoristas de Determinados Hidrocarburos) at issue in the main proceedings, for such a tax cannot be regarded as pursuing a specific purpose within the meaning of that provision where that tax, intended to finance the exercise by the regional or local authorities concerned of their powers in the fields of health and the environment, is not itself directed at protecting health and the environment.
____________1 OJ C 138, 12.5.2012.