At the plenary meeting, the Federal Council adopted a law on a fixed fine of up to 10 thousand rubles for citizens who do not declare cigarettes and alcohol if their quantity exceeds the limit allowed for personal use.
Changes have been made to Article 16.2 of the Code of the Russian Federation on administrative violations (failure to declare or misdeclaration of goods). Fixed fines are prescribed for non-declaration of cigarettes and alcohol when imported into the customs territory of the Eurasian Economic Union if their quantity exceeds the permissible limit for which personal goods can be imported without payment of duties, namely not more than 250 cigarettes and not more than 10 liters of alcoholic beverages. The bill stipulates a fine for citizens from 5 to 10 thousand rubles and possible confiscation of goods.
Previously, if not declaring goods, citizens could be fined from half to twice the value of the goods subject to administrative violations.
According to the authors of the initiative, these changes will reduce the state's costs in conducting inspections to assess the value of items confiscated due to administrative violations, reduce the costs of administrative proceedings and ensure “procedural savings.”
In addition, the law amends Article 32.2 of the Administrative Code (implementation of administrative penalty decisions), allowing individuals and legal entities other than the person who committed the violation to pay administrative fines. The authors of the law explain that this issue is especially relevant when paying administrative fines against foreigners.
