Law No X-1766 of 6 November 2008 Amending and Supplementing Articles 51(4), 51(12), 67, 84(1), 88, 176, 224, 233, 241(1), 241(4), 242, 259(1), 288, 320 of the Code of Administrative Breaches of Law of the Republic of Lithuania and Supplementing the Code with Articles 51(24), 87(8), 87(9) (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 135-5227).

      

      The Law toughened sanctions for environmental pollution with hazardous chemicals and preparations, for non complying to the requirements of packaging and/or packaging waste management, violations of requirements of managing of chemicals and preparations, etc. The Law also set new administrative responsibility for non compliance with the requirements of product and their waste management, obstruction to perform fisheries control functions for a respective officer or for non compliance to his legal requirements, illicit use and holding of wildlife resources, etc.

      

      Law No X-1809 of 13 November 2008 on Implementing Legal Acts of the European Union and International Legal Acts Regulating the Civil Process of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios, No 137-5366).

      

      The Law seeks to combine all legal provisions on civil process in order to implement EU legal acts and other international legal acts. The Law implements Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (OJ special edition 19/04/2004 P. 42), Council Regulation (EC) No 1206/2001 of 28 May 2001 on Cooperation Between the Courts of the Member States in the Taking of Evidence in Civil or Commercial Matters (OJ special edition 19/04/2004 P. 121), etc.

      

      The Law provides that the order for the enforcement of the decisions of the Council of the European Union or the Council of the European Communities, which impose a pecuniary obligation on persons other than States, also the decisions of the EC Court of Justice made on application by the party concerned, shall be immediately enforced by the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Lithuania, but not later than in five working days. The Law also regulates the hearing procedure, review and enforcement procedure of European order for payment procedure and the decision, made in accordance to small claims procedure, the renewal of the deadline for the expired appeal, the procedure of recognition and enforcement of decisions of the courts of the Members States, evidence taking in the Member States of the European Union, the carrying out sentences of the courts of the Member States of the European Union and the application of temporary protective measures, award of procedural documents and other matters related to international civil process.

      

      Law No X-1810 of 13 November 2008 Amending Articles 42, 62, 803 of the Code of the Civil Process of the Republic of Lithuania and Repealing Section 7 of the Chapter LX and the Annex (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 137-5367).

      

      The Law repealed the provisions of the Code of Civil Process of the Republic of Lithuania related to international civil process, i.e. with the participation of the countries in evidence taking in the courts of the EU Member States, with the right of the courts to take evidence in the courts of EU Member States, with the process of acknowledgement and implementation of the decisions of the courts of EU Member States. Now these matters are being regulated by the Law No X-1809 of 13 November 2008 on implementation of EU legal acts and international acts regulating the civil process of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette, No 137-5366).

      

      The Decision of the General Meeting of Members of the Lithuanian Arbitration Association No 2 of 1 July 2008 Approving Annex II of the Regulation of the National Commercial Arbitration Procedure (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 137-5360), the Decision of the General Meeting of Members of the Lithuanian Arbitration Association No 3 of 1 July 2008 Approving Annex II of the Regulation of the International Commercial Arbitration Procedure (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 137-5361), the Decision of the General Meeting of Members of the Lithuanian Arbitration Association No 4 of 1 July 2008 Approving Annex III of the Regulation of the National Commercial Arbitration Procedure (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 137-5362), the Decision of the General Meeting of Members of the Lithuanian Arbitration Association No 5 of 1 July 2008 Approving Annex III of the Regulation of the International Commercial Arbitration Procedure (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 137-5363),

      

      The decisions approved specific dispute solving procedure in ad hoc arbitration tribunal in the fields of energy and transport. The procedure regulates dispute jurisdiction for the previously mentioned tribunals, legal assumptions and action procedure of such cases.

      Law No X-1805 of 11 November 2008 Amending and Supplementing Articles 29, 34, 35, 37, 63, 64, 65, 70, 74, 75 and the Appendix of the Law on Companies of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 135-5241).

      

      The Law annulls the provisions of the Law setting forth that the board establishes the methods for the calculation of depreciation of tangible assets and amortisation of intangible assets and that the head of the company establishes the depreciation rates applied in a company. The respective rights of the board and the head were laid down in the law on Accounting of the Republic of Lithuania No IX-574 of 6 November 2001 (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), 2001, No 99-3515).

      

      In connection with the implementation of the Directive 2007/63/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 amending Council Directives 78/855/EEC and 82/891/EEC as regards the requirement of an independent expert’s report on the occasion of merger or division of public limited liability companies (OJ 2007 L 300, p. 47), the Law simplified the procedures of company reorganisation by way of merger or under certain conditions. The Law sets forth that valuation of reorganisation conditions is not performed and an valuation report (in case of a public limited company – a report on the intended reorganisation as well) is not prepared if all the shareholders of each of the reorganised company and company participating in the reorganisation holding voting shares agree therewith. Agreement of the company’s shareholders can be expressed in any form that may be used to exercise the shareholders’ right to vote in the general meeting of shareholders. Valuation of reorganisation conditions is not performed and a valuation report of reorganisation conditions is not in mergers where the company continuing operations after the reorganisation is the holder of all or not less than 90 percent of the shares of the merged company.

      

      The Law also increased the majority votes required to adopt a board decision: a board decision is adopted if more than half of all elected board members vote in favour, unless the by-laws of the company require a greater majority. These provisions of the Law regarding the increased majority for adopting board decisions shall come into force on 1 July 2009.

      Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No 1183 of 19 November 2008 on the Approval of the Procedure for the Allocation of Costs to Costs from Scientific Research and Experimental Development (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 136-5320).

      

      With this Resolution, the Government approved the Procedure for the Allocation of Costs to Costs from Scientific Research and Experimental Development regulating which costs and what part thereof should be attributable to the costs from scientific research and experimental development when calculating taxable income.

      

      The resolution came into force on 27 November 2008.

      

      Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No 1140 of 29 October 2008 Amending the Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No 325 of 18 March 2003 on the Establishment of the Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania and Approval of the Regulations of the Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 132-5078).

      

      The Resolution extends the range of persons submitting data to the Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania. It sets forth that apart the applicants, owners of design and their representatives, data should also be provided to the Register by assignees of their rights, licensees, the International Bureau under the World Intellectual Property Organisation and courts. The Resolution also expands the list of data to be submitted to the Register with design elements the use of which is permitted by licences, the issue date of the design certificate and data of the international design registration indicating the Republic of Lithuania. The Resolution also indicates additional terms for the publication of a design, i.e. a possibility to postpone publication of a design until 30 months after submitting the application or, if a priority date is requested, from the priority date provided that a respective application has been submitted by the applicant or his representative.

      

      Law No X-1767 of 6 November 2008 Amending Articles 2, 4, 6, 16, 17, 21, 27, 28 and an Annex of the Republic of Lithuania Law on Energy and Supplementing it with Article 7(1) (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 135-5228).

      

      Most of the amendments to the Law were related to National Control Commission for Prices and Energy: Commission’s accountability to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania was established, the procedure of Commission decision making was amended, additional functions of the Commission were established relating to imposing of pecuniary fines and to the control of effective separation of financial reporting, defined in EU legal acts, types of fines imposed by the Commission were settled and the procedure of imposing them, etc.

      

      The Law was supplemented with a specific provision, which states that the procedure of issuance, amendment, suspension and nullification of energy activity licences shall be provided by laws on energy or other laws.

      

      Order of the Director of the Authority of Auditing and Accounting No VAS-11 of 17 November 2008 Amending Business Accounting Standard 20 “Operating Lease, Finance Lease and Loan-for- Use” (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 134-5222).

      

      Several amendments were introduced by this Order. According to the new wording, Paragraph 32 was amended. It sets forth that the maintenance costs of rented property are recognised as operating costs of the lessee if they are not covered by the lessor and if they are not attributable to the production cost.

      

      The Standard was extended with Paragraph 33 which sets forth that expenses incurred by a lessee are recognised as operating costs in the period in which they were incurred. If reconstruction or repair expenses meet the recognition criteria of property, plant and equipment, these expenses are accounted for in accordance with the provisions of Business Accounting Standard 12 “Property, plant and equipment”.

      

      The new wording of Article 34 states that if a lessor agrees to cover the value of a reconstruction or repair performed or agrees to reduce it, the lessee shall account for the repair expenses as receivables.

      

      The Standard was also extended with the new wording of Article 40 setting forth that reconstruction or repair costs incurred by the lessee and covered by the lessor should be accounted for based on their nature with respect to their content and economic sense.

      

      The numbering of the whole standard was changed.

      

      The Order came into force on 23 November 2008.

      

      Resolution of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania No 169 of 6 November 2008 on the Change in Accounting Policies (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 136-5364).

      

       This Resolution allowed credit institutions to change accounting policies when implementing the Commission Regulation (EC) No 1004/2008 of 15 October 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 1725/2003 adopting certain international accounting standards in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39 and International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 7.

      

      The resolution came into force on 28 November 2008.

      

      Order of the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania No 1K-364 of 11 November 2008 Amending the Order of the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania of 17 July 2003 on the Approval of the List of Foreign Countries where the Amount of Inheritance Tax or an Identical Tax Paid Can Be Deducted from the Amount of Inheritance Tax Calculated in Accordance with the Law on Inheritance Tax of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 132-5095).

      

      The Amendment expanded the list of countries where the Amount of Inheritance Tax or an Identical Tax Paid Can Be Deducted from the Amount of Inheritance Tax Calculated in Accordance with the Law on Inheritance Tax of the Republic of Lithuania. The following countries were included in this list: Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Israel, Cyprus, Korea, Malta and Singapore.

      

       The Amendment came into force on 19 November 2008.

      Law No X-1811 of 13 November 2008 Amending Article 6 of the Law on Stamp Duties of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 135-5242).

      

      The Law was extended with entities and persons exempt from the stamp duties in accordance with Article 6 (institutions and officials of the defence system of the Republic of Lithuania and foreign countries).

      

      The Law came into force on 25 November 2008.

      Law No X-1786 of 6 November 2008 Amending Article 148 of the Law on Tax Administration of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 131-5036). The amendment to the Law sets forth that the work of the members of tax dispute commissions shall be payable in accordance with the Law on Remuneration for the Work of State Politicians and Civil Servants.

      

      The amendment came into force on 15 November 2008.

      Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No XP-2383 of 12 November 2008 on the draft Law Amending Article 62 of the Law on Value Added Tax of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 133-5121).

      

      With this Resolution, the Government did not approve the amendment to the Law on Value Added Tax that provided for a permission to deduct input VAT for cars designed to carry not more than 8 persons (excluding the driver), including the cars of a specified class attributable to the category of fourwheel- drive vehicles, which meet the term of a new vehicle with the value (including VAT) not exceeding LTL 130,000, also for the cars of specified categories, which meet the term of a new vehicle with the value (including VAT) exceeding LTL 130,000, but only from the value of LTL 130,000. The main reason was that the budget of the Republic of Lithuania would not receive LTL 280 million in 2009.