A few amendments to laws

The Ukraine’s Ministry of Revenue & Duties has proposed the Ministry of Finance to make some amendments to the laws, which can help combat illegal trade in alcoholic beverages, the press-office of the ministerial department reports.

It is necessary to enter item 20 to article 230, which stipulates imports of alcohol, alcohol distillate, bioethanol.

«This stuff, in our opinion, should be transported by motor vehicles obligatory certified and listed in the uniform registry titled Alcohol Auto Carriers, equipped with GPS-tracking and assigned IMEI codes in the said  above registry», - explained Deputy Minister for Revenues Volodymyr Khomenko.

In addition, the Ministry of Revenue & Duties proposes to raise administrative responsibility for trade in illegal alcohol. In particular, there are some provisions in the Administrative Code setting out requirements for storage and transportation of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products; the fiscal bodies propose to impose fines or welfare activities on the offenders - upon the court decision.

«As far as ordinary penalties, from experience, are absolutely inefficient, in case of repeated violation,  we propose to sentence to two months of welfare activities, - told Khomenko, – and to impose the same punishment (welfare activities) on an offender – for production and sale of fake cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, as well as – for illegitimate storage of excise duty stamps».

It is necessary to give more precise definitions in article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, according to the Minister for Revenue & Duties. In Mr. Khomenko’s opinion, the Code should cover standard compliance issues. The existing wording says «...alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and other taxable goods illegally produced...», including amendments to part 1 of article 204, it should be replaced with: «...taxable goods that do not meet the requirements of the existing national standards of Ukraine, standards of the manufacturing country, including products illegally transported across the border of Ukraine for further sale...»

Moreover, part 2 of article 204 is expected to stipulate imposing punishment for illegal production of taxable goods in the underground workshops or stuff illegally transported, with deprivation of freedom for a term of from three to seven years instead of imposing fines.

These amendments to the legislation, Volodymyr Khomenko believes, will help make the alcohol and tobacco market more transparent.

For today, all proposals on amendments are being considered by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine.