Impose criminal penalties.
The Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law “On amendments to some laws of Ukraine concerning preservation of the Ukrainian forests and prevent illegal export of unprocessed timber”.
For the adoption of the bill No. 5495 a basis and as a whole voted 234 people’s Deputy.
The law is aimed at ensuring the conservation of forest resources of the country by restricting domestic consumption of unprocessed timber and of strengthening administrative and criminal responsibility for illegal logging further export outside the customs control (smuggling).
The law provides that the volume of domestic consumption of domestic raw timber shall not exceed 25 million cubic meters per year regardless of the volume of domestic consumption of domestic raw timber in the previous year.
The monitoring of domestic consumption of domestic raw timber, as well as control over the not-to-exceed amount of domestic consumption of domestic raw timber, established by this article, to receive the Central body of Executive power that implements the state policy in the field of forestry, in the order established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
By law, illegal cutting and damage of trees or shrubs shall entail imposing a fine on citizens from 15 to 30, and on officials – from 75 to 150 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens.
The same actions committed by a person who during the year has been subject to administrative penalties include the imposition of fines on citizens from 30 to 60, and for officials – from 300 to 600 tax-free minimum incomes of citizens.
The destruction or damage of green plantings, individual trees, shrubs, lawns, flower beds and other landscaping sites within settlements, failure to take measures for their protection, as well as unauthorized transfer to other locations during the development of individual plots with the planting sites; damage to trees and shrubs outside the settlements, which are not included in forest Fund, or the illegal cutting of the entail imposing a fine on citizens from 10 to 30, officials or physical persons – entrepreneurs – from 30 to 50 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens.
In addition, the law introduces amendments to the criminal code, according to which movement across the customs border of Ukraine outside the customs control or by avoiding customs control of timber or lumber of valuable and rare tree species, as well as raw timber, are punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of three to five years.
The same action committed by a person who has previously committed one of the crimes, or on preliminary arrangement by group of persons or business entity, with the use of power or official position, or in a large size shall be punished by imprisonment for the term from five till ten years with deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term up to three years and with confiscation of property.
Illegal cutting of trees or shrubs in the forest, protective and other forest plantations, transportation, storage, sale of illegal felling of trees or shrubs, which caused substantial harm, are punishable by a fine from one thousand to one thousand five hundred free minima of the income of citizens or arrest for a term up to six months, or restraint soyadi a period of three years, or imprisonment for the same term.
This act shall enter into force on 1 January 2019. In this case temporarily, for a period of eight years from the date of entry into force, it is prohibited to export outside the customs territory of Ukraine under the customs regime of export of wood fuel.
We will remind, in most cases for illegal logging in the Ukrainian courts appoint the minimum penalty of a fine of 5,1 thousand hryvnia.
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