The government did not support the bill to reduce fines for “entrepreneurial articles” by 2 times

The government did not support the initiative to reduce fines under 17 “entrepreneurial” articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO), which were supposed to reduce administrative pressure on entrepreneurs. In May, deputies of the New People faction sent such a bill to the government for review. The White House did not support the idea of ​​”New People”: such a decision was made on July 24 at the government commission on legislative activity, two interlocutors close to the White House told Vedomosti.

The bill was not supported by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Tax Service, the Federal Customs Service, the Federal Bailiff Service, the FSTEC, the Bank of Russia, Roskomnadzor, Rosobrnadzor, Rosreestr, Rostransnadzor, Rostrud, Rosakkreditatsiya, Roszheldor, Rostechnadzor, Rosaviatsia, Roszdravnadzor, Rospatent, Rospotrebnadzor, Rosprirodnadzor, Rosselkhoznadzor, Federal Assay Office, Treasury, Prosecutor General’s Office.

The draft recall of the government, which was reviewed by Vedomosti, states that the bill proposes to ease sanctions for certain administrative offenses, including in the field of entrepreneurial activity. At the same time, there is no substantiation of the proposed 2-fold reduction in the amount of administrative fines in the materials. According to the government, this violates the requirements regarding the procedure for amending the legislation on administrative offenses, since such changes should be based on the results of a study of law enforcement practice and this should indicate redundancy and disproportionate measures of responsibility.

The materials did not contain any justification for the exclusion from certain norms of the special part of the Code of Administrative Offenses of such types of administrative punishments as disqualification and administrative suspension of activities, imposed for gross violations of legal requirements. “The exclusion of these norms can lead to a weakening of the preventive function of the legislation on administrative offenses and causing harm to the individual, society and the state,” the government’s draft recall says.

Also, the draft law “New People” does not take into account that in 2022 complex changes were made to the Code of Administrative Offenses, which provide for a significant reduction in the administrative burden on business entities (federal laws of March 26, 2022 No. 70-FZ and of July 14, 2022 No. 290-FZ). And these changes made it possible to apply warnings for an administrative offense committed for the first time, the imposition of one administrative penalty for several administrative offenses, the payment of an administrative fine in half and other types of administrative penalties, the government’s draft recall says.

The “new people” in their bill proposed to reduce fines for violating labor laws, for concluding contracts in violation of the declared conditions of the supplier, for illegally employing foreigners or stateless people, for introducing and selling non-labeled products if they are subject to labeling, non-declaring goods, failure to comply within the deadlines for the instructions of state oversight bodies, etc. In their opinion, reducing the burden on business would attract new investments.

Vladislav Davankov, deputy speaker of the State Duma from the New People, told Vedomosti that the party is ready to finalize the bill in form and resubmit it for the government to conclude. “We are sure of its essence: there should be fewer fines for businesses,” he concluded.