State Border Guard Service suggests to criminalize cigarette smuggling

"Since the beginning of the year, smuggling of almost 2 million 300 thousand packs of cigarettes has been prevented, which is 146% more than that for the same period last year", the assistant head of the State Border Guard Service – Press Secretary Oleg Slobodyan said at the briefing.

However, the volume of cigarettes smuggling continue to grow. The main reasons, according to Slobodyan, are: firstly, too lenient penalties for offenses in this area, and secondly, a significant reduction in the price of tobacco products, which, according to the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, took place in October 2015.

This problem could be partly solved by the adoption of the draft Law №3254 "On amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine concerning the criminalization of smuggling of alcoholic beverages, tobacco products." Also, the State Border Guard Service proposes to criminalize responsibility for smuggling of not only cigarettes, but also raw materials for their production and counterfeit tobacco products.