The Ministry of Justice proposed to remove three “economic” articles from the Criminal Code and not put people in jail for business without registration

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation put forward a proposal to decriminalize the criminal article on entrepreneurship without registration. The relevant draft law, which contains proposals for the liberalization of legislation in relation to business, published on the portal of projects of normative legal acts.

“It is proposed to eliminate liability for entrepreneurial activities without registration by making appropriate changes to the disposition of Article 171 “Illegal Business” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” the document says.

What proposals are included in the bill:

• increase by one and a half times the maximum amount of damage to be held liable under the article for fraud (it will amount to 18 million rubles);
• decriminalize the article on illegal real estate transactions;
• remove from the Criminal Code an article on evading disclosure or provision of information about securities;
• abolish criminal punishment for entering deliberately false information into a land surveying project or a map-plan of the territory.

Businessmen can still be held liable under Article 14.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (carrying out business activities without state registration or without special permission).

Article 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for punishment as a fine of up to 300 thousand rubles. or arrest for up to six months. If the crime is committed by an organized group, the article provides for up to five years in prison.

Formerly Ministry of Justice developed bill to mitigate criminal liability for crimes related to tax evasion and other payments. It consists in reducing the maximum term of imprisonment and the statute of limitations for bringing to criminal responsibility.

What concessions did the business ask for from the state – in the material “Kommersant” “You can’t just take off handcuffs”.

Julia Abugalieva