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1. Whatever the structure of the taxes referred to in Article 3, Member States shall set the rates so as to ensure that the tax rate for each vehicle category or subcategory referred to in Annex I is not lower than the minimum laid down in that Annex. Until two years after entry into force of the Directive, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain shall be authorised to apply rates that are lower than, but not less than, 65 % of the minima laid down in Annex I.

2. Member States may apply reduced rates or exemptions for:

(a) vehicles used for national or civil defence purposes, by fire and other emergency services and by the police, and vehicles used for road maintenance;

(b) vehicles which travel only occasionally on the public roads of the Member State of registration and are used by natural or legal persons whose main occupation is not the carriage of goods, provided that the transport operations carried out by these vehicles do not cause distortions of competition, and subject to the Commission's agreement.

3.

(a) The Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, may authorise a Member State to maintain further exemptions from or reductions in taxes on vehicles on the grounds of specific policies of a socio-economic nature or linked to that State's infrastructure. Such exemptions or reductions may apply only to vehicles registered in that Member State which carry out transport operations exclusively inside a well-defined part of its territory.

(b) Any Member State wishing to maintain such an exemption or reduction shall inform the Commission thereof and shall also forward to it all necessary information. The Commission shall inform the other Member States of the proposed exemption or reduction within one month. The Council shall be deemed to have authorised maintenance of the proposed exemption or reduction if, within a period of two months from the date on which the other Member States were informed in accordance with the first subparagraph, neither the Commission nor any Member State has requested that the matter be examined by the Council.

4. Without prejudice to the second subparagraph of paragraph l and to paragraphs 2 and 3 of this Article or to Article 6 of Council Directive 92/106/EEC of 7 December 1992 on the establishment of common rules for certain types of combined transport of goods between Member States (), Member States may not grant any exemption from, or any reduction in, the taxes referred to in Article 3 which would render the chargeable tax lower than the minimum referred to in paragraph l of this Article.