The Council adopted a draft law on the criminalization of smuggling

The Council adopted a draft law on the criminalization of smuggling

[ad_1]

At its meeting on December 9, the Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 5420 on the criminalization of smuggling in the second reading.

About this reported First Deputy Chairman of the Tax Committee of the Council, Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

248 People’s Deputies voted for the corresponding bill, which was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

According to the people’s deputy, the amendments from the specialized committee, which were insisted on by business, were taken into account in the adopted draft law. Accordingly, it is proposed to raise the thresholds for goods smuggling by 5 times, and the thresholds for excise goods to be doubled.

“The entry into force (criminalization) of commodity (smuggling) is postponed until the middle of 2024. As I said, this is the deadline according to the (memorandum with) the IMF regarding the restart of the BEB,” Zheleznyak noted.

In addition, numerous business wishes were taken into account, that the qualification of actions as a crime can only occur if there is intent. Possible cases of prosecution under “smuggled” articles for submitting documents with false information are also significantly limited.

“In the amended version, they must be the basis for the movement of goods, must be subject to mandatory declaration in accordance with customs legislation, and also have an impact on determining the amount of customs payments or compliance with non-tariff regulation measures,” Zheleznyak emphasized.

During the voting, no amendments were made to the text submitted by the committee for the second reading to the Council, but the text itself is not yet available on the parliament’s website.

The People’s Deputy added that the adoption of the draft law is a requirement for macro-finance from the EU for 1.5 billion euros this year.

We will remind:

At its plenary session on December 8, the Verkhovna Rada intends to to consider in the second reading draft law No. 5420 on the criminalization of smuggling.

The European Commission is waitingthat next year Ukraine will continue to carry out anti-corruption reforms, bring its legislation closer to EU standards, as well as criminalize smuggling and pass a law on restarting the Bureau of Economic Security.

[ad_2]

Original Source Link