Frequently asked questions
The obligations of selected entrepreneurs according to the Act no. 218/2013 Z.z. on emergency stocks of oil and petroleum products and on dealing with state of oil emergency and on amendments and supplements of certain acts (hereinafter referred to as „Act on Emergency Stocks“).
1. What is the basic obligation of the selected entrepreneur?
The selected entrepreneur, i.e. entrepreneur who imports or release the selected petroleum products for consumption within the territory of the Slovak Republic pursuant to an exactly defined customs and tax regimes (hereinafter referred to as the „imported products“) is obliged to conclude the Contract on Procuring the Maintenance of Emergency Stocks (hereinafter referred to as the „Contract”) with the Emergency Oil Stock Agency (hereinafter referred to as the "Agency"). This obligation does not apply to an entrepreneur whose imports or release for consumption of selected petroleum products does not exceed 20 m3 overall over 12 consecutive calendar months.
2. For which petroleum products this obligation applies? Which are "the selected petroleum products"?
The selected petroleum products are individual types of petroleum products falling into the following 3 categories:
1. Motor and aviation fuels of gasoline type
2. Diesel, kerosene, jet fuel and other gas oils,
3. Heating oil
Individual selected petroleum products with their respective codes of combined nomenclature from the common customs tariff are listed in Annex I of the Act on Emergency Stocks. With few exceptions, in principle, the selected petroleum products include those petroleum products (mineral oils) that are subject to consumption tax according to Act no. 98/2004 Coll. on excise duty on mineral oil (hereinafter referred to as the "Act on Excise Duty").
3. To what date is the selected entrepreneur required to conclude the Contract with Agency?
Selected entrepreneur is obliged to request the Agency to conclude the Contract on Procuring the Maintenance of Emergency Stocks no later than 15 days after the occurrence of any of the facts in accordance with § 2 letter d) of the Act on Emergency Stocks. The Agency is not obliged to conclude the Contract with the selected entrepreneur, if the selected entrepreneur has an unfulfilled obligation to the Agency, which is an unpaid claim from the Agency's previous contractual relationship with the selected entrepreneur, or the selected entrepreneur has not submitted security deposit before concluding a new Contract according to paragraph 4.
4. What is the procedure of concluding the Contract?
The selected entrepreneur should contact the Agency with sufficient time in advance so that the specified 15-day period is observed. The selected entrepreneur can download template of the Contract from the web site of the Agency (www.eosa.sk) in the "DOWNLOAD" section (https://www.eosa.sk/en/download) under the tile "Contract on Procuring the Maintenance of Emergency Stocks (Slovak version).docx". The selected entrepreneur fills in his information on the front page of the Contract and prints the Contract in 2 copies together with its annexes. Both copies shall be signed on the back page and sent to the Agency by post at the address stated on the web site of the section "CONTACT". Business Terms and Price List are the integral part and appendices to the Contract, so it is necessary to be acquainted with them properly. The Contract has a standardized form and it is the same for all selected entrepreneurs. The selected entrepreneurs therefore do not have any option to change its wording.
After delivery of the mentioned 2 copies the Agency's statutory representatives will sign the Contract, and thus the Contract enters into force. Subsequently, the Agency will send one copy of the Contract back to the selected entrepreneur.
Note: To simplify the procedure, the selected entrepreneur can also send to the Agency, together with the signed 2 copies of the Contract:
- the agreement for receiving the electronic invoices –the template is available at (https://www.eosa.sk/en/download),
- affidavit with an estimate of volume of imported products within 3 calendar months following the date of concluding the Contract - see paragraph 14.
5. Where can the selected entrepreneur learn more about the terms of the Contract?
Template of the Contract, as well as current Business Terms and conditions for this Contract (hereinafter referred to as the "Business Terms") are published on the web site of the Agency (www.eosa.sk) in the "DOWNLOAD" section (https://www.eosa.sk/en/download).
6. What if the selected entrepreneur does not fulfil its main obligation and performs the activities referred to in § 2 letter d) of Act on Emergency Stocks without existing Contract?
Agency monitors performance of activities referred to in § 2 letter d) of Act on Emergency stocks and thus also fulfilment of the main obligations of the selected entrepreneurs to conclude the Contract pursuant to Act on Emergency stocks by means of regularly delivered data from Financial Administration of Slovak Republic.
If the Agency, based on data from the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic, identifies that there is a selected entrepreneurs who have not fulfilled its obligation in accordance with the procedure specified in paragraph 4, asks this selected entrepreneur for prompt concluding of the Contract. If the selected entrepreneur fails to meet its obligation to conclude the Contract even following the appeal of the Agency, the Agency shall notify Administration of State Material Reserves of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as the "Administration of Reserves"). In accordance with § 23 paragraph 6 of Act on Emergency stocks, Administration of Reserves imposes the fine of 665,000 euros to the selected entrepreneur if even the appeal of Administation of reserves have not led to a remedy. If the selected entrepreneur performs the activities without concluding the Contract even after the imposition of fines, Administration of reserves will initiate cancellation of the trade license of the selected entrepreneur.
7. What is the main obligation of the selected entrepreneur pursuant to the Contract?
The selected entrepreneur is obliged to pay the price in accordance with the Contract and Business Terms for providing services on procuring the maintenance of emergency stocks (hereinafter as “Service”). Value of fee (unit coefficient) by which the final price is calculated is shown in the Price list annexed to the Contract, which is published on the web site of the Agency respectively.
8. How will the Service price be paid?
The price of the Service will depend on the actual volume of imported products by selected entrepreneurs. The selected entrepreneur will pay a monthly payment to an account in the State Treasury, account number: 7000535146/8180, SWIFT: SPSRSKBA, IBAN: SK13 8180 0000 0070 0053 5146. The amount of the price is calculated as the multiplication of the fee (unit coefficient) according to price list and the net volume of imported products by this selected entrepreneur for the respective calendar month. VAT is added to each payment for these services.
9. How does the Agency find out the actual volumes of imported products for each selected entrepreneurs?
The details about the real imported volume of products will be reported to the Agency by the selected entrepreneurs by means of the document "Notification on volume", which is available for this purpose for download on the website of the Agency in "DOWNLOAD" section. The selected entrepreneurs shall send a scan od the complete document „Notification on volume“ by e-mail to info@eosa.sk not later than the 13-th day of the month following the decisive month. If the last day of this period falls on other than working day, the selected entrepreneur is obliged to deliver the Notification on volume on the previous working day. The Agency will verify this data by later delivered data on import volumes of selected petroleum products from the Financial Administration of Slovak Republic.
10. What happens if selected entrepreneur provides an incorrect amount in the Notification on volume?
If the Agency during the verification process will find out that the selected entrepreneur has given incorrect information about the actual imported volumes, without undue delay, but not later than 15 days from the end of the calendar month, in which the difference in the amount was detected, the Agency will correct the price for the month as a correction of the tax base pursuant to § 25 of the Act on VAT ("corrective invoice“). The difference between the amounts referred to above may be positive ("reduction of the price") or a negative number ("increase of the price"). Above mentioned difference shall be paid by the Agency (in case of reduction of the price - an overpayment) or selected entrepreneur (in case of an increase of the price - arrears) not later than 10 days from the date of issue of the corrective invoice. If the selected entrepreneur repeatedly breaches its obligation to deliver the Notification on volume duly and on time or repeatedly provides incorrect or incomplete information in this Notification on volume, the Agency shall be entitled to terminate the Contract on procuring the maintenance of emergency stocks with this selected entrepreneur.
11. When will the invoices be issued for the selected entrepreneurs for the respective months and what is the due date of these invoices?
After sending data on the actual volumes of imported products from selected entrepreneurs, the Agency will issue invoice until the 15-th day of the month following the decisive month. The due date of these invoices will be the 25-th day of the month following the decisive month.
12. What if there is a tax refund of mineral oil according to a special regulation in relation to imported products?
In addition to the volume of imported products, the selected entrepreneur specifies in the document "Notification on volume" also a volume of selected petroleum products, for which the tax based on Act on Excise Duty was refunded. The data on volume of imported products for selected entrepreneur, to whom the tax was refunded, is also announced to the Agency by Financial Administration of Slovak Republic. The Agency after having obtained information on the volume in relation to which the tax has been refunded, reduces the data of the net volume of imported products during the calculation process of Service price.
If Agency obtains this information in the same tax period in which the import took place, the Agency will directly reduce the data on the net quantity of imported products when calculating the final price. If the Agency obtains this information in another tax period, it will issue a credit note of invoicing to the selected entrepreneur. The agency is obliged to issue a credit note of invoicing within 15 days from the end of the calendar month in which the fact decisive for the correction of the tax base occurred.
13. Is the selected entrepreneur obliged to submit any collateral for the Agency?
Yes. The selected entrepreneur is obliged to make a security deposit to the bank account of the Agency before concluding the contract.
14. How is the amount of collateral specified?
Amount of collateral for each selected entrepreneur should be equal to one month's average payment of selected entrepreneurs for services of the maintenance of emergency stocks. For this purpose, when concluding the Contract, the new selected entrepreneur should provide an estimate of the volume of imported products during 3 calendar months after having concluded the Contract in the form of an affidavit. Based on the above mentioned estimate, Agency calculates one-month average of volume of imported products and the amount of the collateral should be determined by multiplying of this volume and fee (unit coefficient) according to the price list, which shall be raised by20 % corresponding to VAT rate.
The amount of collateral will be changed during the duration of effectiveness of Contract in accordance with the Business Terms pursuant to paragraphs 9.4, 9.5 and 9.6 of Business Terms. The Agency will change the amount of collateral every year depending on the average amount of products imported by selected entrepreneur for the previous calendar year. The Agency will be entitled to change the amount of collateral, depending on the fulfilment of the obligations of the selected entrepreneur. If the selected entrepreneur will be in delay with payments under the Contract, the Agency may increase the collateral. On the contrary, in case of duly fulfilment of the obligations, the Agency may reduce the collateral. In all cases, the Agency shall inform the selected entrepreneur about the current amount of the collateral.
15. Is there any alternative to the collateral?
Yes. Instead of depositing the collateral the selected entrepreneur may provide a bank guarantee in the amount as required for collateral. Requested amount of the bank guarantee is updated under the same rules as the amount of collateral. The template of the bank guarantee, acceptable for the Agency, is published on the web site of the Agency in the "DOWNLOAD" section (www.eosa.sk).
16. How can an entrepreneur ask the Agency for confirmation of arrears for the purposes of the Excise Tax Act?
An entrepreneur can request a confirmation of arrears to the Agency by an e-mail by sending a brief request to the e-mail address info@eosa.sk, from which it will be possible to identify the company in question, or entrepreneur and the address to which he requests the confirmation to be sent.
Update: February 28, 2023