Although penalties must be proportionate to the damage caused to the budget, the fines imposed on legal entities often exceed those prescribed for the same violations committed by individuals by several times.
Furthermore, in the case of legal entities, the fine may be doubled for a repeat offense and tripled for subsequent violations.
The Goal: To Address the Discrepancy
To address this discrepancy, a number of amendments to the code are being proposed. These are contained in a draft bill submitted by the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization for public consultation. The discussion will continue until July 23.
In particular, it is proposed to abolish the application of triple penalties to legal entities in cases of violations of labor laws, rules governing trade and the provision of services, intellectual property rights, customs and tax laws, conducting business activities without a license, and violations of sanitary and veterinary standards, environmental protection requirements, and others.
For micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), the proposal is to reduce fines by half of the prescribed amount.
In addition, it is proposed to revise the current penalties for the illegal conduct of pharmaceutical activities and set a fine ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 UAH instead of the current fine equal to the value of the relevant products, but not less than 1,500 UAH.
It is also proposed to stipulate that construction work requiring a continuous technological process but accompanied by noise shall not be considered a violation of quiet hours and shall not result in penalties, provided certain conditions are met.
