State Revenue Committee proposes harsher punishment of smuggling

ArmInfo.  The State Revenue  Committee of Armenia proposes to abandon the incentive norms for  exemption from criminal liability, thus toughening criminal liability  for smuggling of goods. The initiative is posted on the  unified portal of legal acts e-draft.am.

As stated in the document, as a result of the decriminalization of  smuggling of goods (Article 215) in 2016 by Law No. GO-83-N, the  number of the mentioned crimes has increased. , - the authors of the initiative noted.

Thus, according to the data of the Investigative Committee of the  Republic of Armenia, in 2023, 932 criminal cases (related to taxes)  were considered, 464 cases were completed, 439 cases were terminated:  60 - with the application of an incentive, 379 - on other grounds, 27  billion drams were collected. In this regard, in particular, it is  planned to add a new article 290.1 to the Criminal Code, according to  which smuggling is defined as a criminal act, that is, smuggling is  the illegal transportation of goods across the state border of the  Republic of Armenia or the customs border of the Eurasian Economic  Union without customs control or hiding from it, or without declaring  reliable information about them in the prescribed manner, or without  declaring them on their own behalf, or violating the rules  established for their transfer, including by violating a prohibition  or restriction or fraudulently using a customs or other document. The  initiator proposes to establish punishment for this criminal act in  the form of imprisonment for a term of 3 to 6 years.

This provision, as the State Revenue Committee believes, will help  prevent and identify cases of smuggling, for which there are no  provisions in the current Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia,  but an increase in the number of cases of these illegal acts is  recorded. 

"Considering the law enforcement practice, when in many cases  criminal cases are initiated without serious grounds, the change  provided for in Article 1 of the draft may lead to bad consequences>,  - notes the chairman of the public organization Paylak Tadevosyan.

, - notes in turn Eduard Badalyan, an expert from the human  rights organization . The expert does not  even want to believe that the initiator could be the State Revenue  Committee, which says something like this: as well, in  order to ensure better prevention>.

, - asks Badalyan.

Note that the bill was posted on the portal on August 8, and as of  midday on August 12, 83% of respondents were against the document.