The State Duma approved in the first reading fines for non-sale of foreign currency earnings

The State Duma adopted in the first reading bill, returning administrative fines for non-sale of foreign currency earnings by exporters. According to the document, fines for officials will amount to 40–50 thousand rubles, for legal entities – from three-quarters to one of the amount of unsold foreign currency earnings.

Changes are proposed to be made to Art. 15.25 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which establishes fines for violation of currency laws. Fines for failure to fulfill obligations on the mandatory sale of foreign currency are intended to be included in Part 3.1 of this article.

The bill was submitted to the State Duma on November 2 by a group of deputies and senators led by Andrei Klishas.

According to the bill, the rule will apply to legal relations that arose from October 11, 2023, that is, from the day when the presidential decree on the mandatory sale of foreign currency earnings by exporters was signed.

It was previously reported that the legal department of the State Duma in its conclusion drew attention to the fact that the retrospective application of the norm from October 11, 2023, the date of signing of the relevant presidential decree, cannot be applied, since the proposed approach is not consistent with Part 2 of Art. 1.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, according to which a law establishing or aggravating administrative liability for an administrative offense or otherwise worsening a person’s situation does not have retroactive effect.

Amendments to the bill can be made until December 14.

The presidential decree of October 11 on the return of mandatory repatriation of foreign currency earnings for a number of companies and its sale on the Russian market is of a closed nature. The list of organizations is not disclosed, however, according to data “Kommersant” included companies whose share of exports in revenue exceeds 60%.

Read more in the Kommersant article. “Persuasion by fines”.

Polina Motyzlevskaya