It is proposed to introduce criminal liability for the use of deliberately fake digital excise stamps for labeling tobacco or nicotine-containing products, which are protected from falsification. Such a bill was submitted to the State Duma on October 1 by a group of deputies, the document was published in the electronic database of the chamber.
Earlier, on March 18, Alexander Spiridonov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Industry and Trade, reported that a more effective control measure in the form of barcodes would replace the excise stamps that currently mark tobacco products. According to him, this must be done, since the excise stamp, unlike the barcode, is quite easy to forge.
Currently, Parts 3 and 4 of Article 327.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation regulate responsibility for the manufacture or sale of counterfeit excise or federal special stamps for the identification of alcohol or counterfeit special (excise) stamps for labeling tobacco products, as well as for the use of knowingly fake excise or federal special stamps for labeling such products.
The authors of the bill, in addition to responsibility for the production and sale of counterfeit excise stamps for alcohol identification, propose to fix in this article of the Criminal Code criminal liability for the manufacture or sale of counterfeit digital excise stamps protected from counterfeiting for labeling tobacco products.
In addition, now part 5 of Article 171.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishes responsibility for the production, acquisition, storage, transportation for the purpose of marketing or sale of unmarked alcoholic beverages subject to mandatory labeling with excise stamps or federal special stamps, as well as unmarked tobacco products subject to labeling with excise stamps, committed on a large scale.
The draft law proposes to clarify this article, indicating that criminal liability for these crimes is provided if such labeling is mandatory. At the same time, the authors of the bill proposed replacing the term "tobacco products" with "tobacco and/or nicotine-containing products."
The draft law also proposes to establish that under deliberately forged excise stamps, special (excise) stamps or digital excise stamps protected from counterfeiting, marking means are recognized that were not obtained through the state information system for monitoring the turnover of goods subject to mandatory labeling. The developers of the document believe that its adoption will improve the effectiveness of control over the production and turnover of tobacco and (or) nicotine-containing products.
In a conversation with the Parliamentary Newspaper, Spiridonov noted that the digital labeling of alcohol and tobacco allows you to track the entire path of products from the moment of manufacture at the factory to sale, therefore it makes it easy to calculate counterfeit products.
According to the deputy, in previous years, 30-35 percent of products on the market in certain categories of alcohol and tobacco were counterfeit. Then the percentage of counterfeit goods began to decrease, which was influenced by inspections by control authorities and the introduction of a labeling system.
"In case of absence or forgery of the marking, there should be serious fines. I believe that it is necessary to impose penalties up to criminal ones, since alcoholic beverages produced using the wrong technology can be deadly for people. Unfortunately, we remember well the examples from the recent past," the parliamentarian said.
As Artyom Kiryanov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, explained to the Parliamentary Newspaper, the fight against counterfeiting and smuggling is one of the most important tasks today.
The deputy, being one of the authors of the bill, explained that the illegal turnover of tobacco products annually brings almost one hundred billion losses to the budget.
"If we calculate the economic effect as a whole, taking into account the lost profits of legal producers, then this figure is already about 150 billion," Kiryanov said. — Therefore, tougher penalties for illegal trafficking, sale and any stage of the illegal movement of tobacco products is a step towards improving state regulation of the production and turnover of these products, as well as to whitewash the economy. Such formats of strengthening responsibility, together with the solution of the issue of harmonization of excise policy with our neighboring countries, will allow us to achieve a zero level of illegal turnover of nicotine-containing products."
One of the authors of the bill, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection Leonid Ogul, in an interview with the Parliamentary Newspaper, noted that the law is designed to protect the health of Russians. In addition, it will serve to strengthen control over the sale of tobacco and alcohol.
"Mandatory labeling of goods by means of identification was introduced relatively recently, judicial practice (...) has not developed to the extent to prevent violations," the deputy said. "The changes that are planned to be introduced into the Criminal Code will tighten responsibility for the turnover of unmarked alcohol and tobacco products and strengthen state control in this area."
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