Illegal production of excise goods will be treated as crime

By Friday, urgent draft amendments to the Penal Code will be submitted to Parliament. The proposals will provide for criminalising the illegal production of excise goods. This was announced after a meeting of the Ministers ofFinance, Interior and Justice, Vladislav Goranov, Mladen Marinov and Tsetska Tsacheva with the Chief Prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov on 25^th of September.

The changes are in response to a long-standing gap in legislation. The existing legislation provides for prosecution of the content and sale of illegally produced excise goods, but not their production. On Tuesday, the proposed changes will be tabled for discussion in the Coalition Council, and by Friday – to MPs in Parliament.

Sotir Tsatsarov, Chief Prosecutor: The second area in which we propose amendments is related to a change in the definition of "sell" - it should be: distributed in any form. And finally, a registration regime for the machines and equipment that produces such goods, because the current free production regime, with their recovery, recycling, etc., makes this illegal production possible to be mobile both on the territory of the country and abroad, no matter whether it is cigarettes or alcohol.