Authorities to increase fines for illegal trafficking in precious metals

The Ministry of Finance has prepared amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, which concern toughening of liability for repeated (within a year) offenses in the circulation of precious metals and stones. "Izvestia" got acquainted with the document.

Thus, fines for refusal to become a special registration will increase. For individual entrepreneurs - from 80-100 thousand rubles to 120-160 thousand, and for legal entities - from 120-140 thousand rubles to 160-180 thousand.

In addition, the penalty for repeated violation of the rules of accounting of precious metals or provision of data on their movement in the state information system (GIIS DMDC) will become stricter. The fine for legal entities will increase from Br50-80 thousand to Br100-120 thousand.

The current size of the penalty does not allow to effectively counteract those market players who systematically work without special registration. They take advantage of the low size of the penalty and ignore the requirements of the legislation in order not to display information about the facts of DMDC turnover, reported "Izvestia" in the Ministry of Finance.

The explanatory documents also say that due to unscrupulous players the shadow market is growing, as it is profitable to conduct illegal activities even taking into account the costs of paying fines.

This negatively affects budget revenues, said Antonina Levashenko, head of the Center-OECD IPEI of the Presidential Academy. In addition, there is a growing risk for consumers to encounter counterfeit jewelry.

This is not the first initiative of the Ministry of Finance in the field of precious metals. Earlier, the ministry proposed to suspend special registration of a company or individual entrepreneur working with precious metals, if their license is no longer valid.

Read more in the exclusive material of "Izvestia":

All the wrong gold: authorities will raise fines for illegal trafficking of precious metals