29 April 2024 Association "Ukrkondprom" signed a Memorandum of Cooperation and Partnership with the Association of Polish Chocolate and Confectionery Manufacturers "POLBISCO". During the signing of the Memorandum, the presidents of the associations: Oleksandr Baldyniuk and Marek Przezhdziaka discussed the urgent problems of the development of the confectionery and chocolate industry in Ukraine and Poland, partnership relations in matters of bilateral trade, unimpeded access to the markets of the two countries, organization of joint events, aimed at supporting Ukrainian and Polish manufacturers of confectionery and chocolate, etc. The issue of the Polish-Ukrainian crisis was also raised, associations spoke in favor of unblocking the borders, because such a situation complicates the circulation of goods, harms the economy and affects the processing industry more, consumers therefore suffer from this, that access to goods worsens.
Ukraine and Poland are trade and strategic partners, therefore, the restoration of the borders will renew the partnership between the two countries.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to Mr. Stefanchuk R.O.
Heads of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Law Enforcement Activities to Mr. Ionushas S.K.
Heads of the Committee on Finance of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, tax and customs policy Mr. Getmantsev D.O.
To the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on finance, tax and customs policy Mr. Zheleznyak Ya.I.
People's deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Heads of TSC on the protection of investors' rights Ms. Yanchenko G.I.
Prosecutor General to Mr. Kostin A.E.
It is being processed in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
draft Law of Ukraine No. 10440 dated 29.01.2024 "On making changes to
Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine and other legislative acts regarding
improving the work of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine".
Among the predictions of adoption and implementation
of this project, the improvement of the legal basis of the BEB activity was announced,
ensuring guarantees of compliance with the rights of legal entities during the execution of decisions
investigating judge, court on temporary access to things and documents and on search
other ownership of the subject of entrepreneurial activity, etc.
Specialists of business associations, without being
indifferent, and while waiting for real changes to be made to
current legislation, which will guarantee business protection from pressure
law enforcement officers and illegal interference in economic activity – in detail
analyzed this draft law and prepared a number of proposals, which are required
to take into account when finalizing it.
Given the difficult situation, when trust
business to law enforcement agencies needs to be restored – it is extremely important to make
changes to the CCP of Ukraine, which will contribute to the restoration of business confidence in
law enforcement agencies. Moreover, this step will be effective along with
by restarting the Bureau of Economic Security (draft law No. 10439 of
Business is being prepared for the second reading).
Changes are desperately needed, worked up
specialists of leading business associations, which are important to implement and implement
soon:
Predict, that of criminal
offenses, under investigation by the National Police and BEB, cannot be provided
assignment by the operational officer of the SBU.
Any actions or omissions, and
decision of the investigator, inquirer, prosecutor, accepted for any procedural action
can be appealed to the investigating judge.
Predict, that the prosecutor has after receiving
court decision, according to which it is necessary to return the temporarily withdrawn
property, duty appears during 24 hours to give an instruction to the investigator regarding
immediate return of such property and 72 hours to return such property,
the body that removed it.
Enter the term of validity of the decision of the investigating judge on
seizure of property. With a float 60 days, if the seizure is imposed on the property of a third party
(natural or legal person), at the same time, if such a person, the founder or
the employee of such a legal entity did not acquire the status of a suspect, the court must
cancel the arrest at the request of such a person, if the prosecutor does not prove the necessity
further seizure of such property.
Introduce the concept of critical property
(means of labor, which is a component of economic activity) and set exceptions
grounds for its removal
Predict, that failure to notify the owner
of property on the consideration of a request for seizure of property is an obstacle in the consideration of such
request.
Give the investigator the right to cancel as well
to arrest – by closing criminal proceedings, in agreement with
the prosecutor.
Install, that the maximum amount of the deposit
cannot exceed the minimum amount of incriminated damages, confirmed
expert opinion, also remove exceptional cases for assignment
pledge, which exceeds the dimensions established by the code.
To place the duty on investigative judges
checking compliance by the pre-trial investigation body with the requirements of the investigation, at
consideration of submitted petitions.
Predict, that violation of jurisdiction
criminal proceedings, illegal change of criminal liability
proceedings – can be appealed to a higher-level prosecutor, and the refusal of
the satisfaction of such a complaint may be appealed to the court.
Predict, that the person in whom it was held
search – must get the right to get acquainted with the materials that the prosecutor, investigator
substantiated the arguments of the petition. The right of cancellation is supposed to be granted
search warrants. The evidence received on the annulled decision will not be considered
evidence.
Prohibit seizure of things and documents,
which are not specified in the decision of the investigating judge.
Establish specific terms of pre-trial detention
investigation and the procedure for their continuation in actual criminal proceedings,
excluding crimes, assigned to the jurisdiction of NABU and DBR (for them
the current version of the CCP remains). It is also proposed to settle issues regarding
terms in criminal proceedings that fell on martial law (30 months
for investigation + they have all the terms they have left before military service
can be used by addition 30 months) with the right to continue such
terms of investigative judges.
Enter an injunction against the prosecution
to carry out examinations in bodies subordinate to such a party, in order to prevent
monopoly on conducting examinations and its abuse. Such a monopoly leads
before, that a law enforcement agency (for example, SBU, National Police) violates
criminal proceedings in their own NDEKTS of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or ISTE of the SBU appoint and
conducts examinations to confirm its position as a party to the prosecution.
This monopoly leads to bias in the implementation of criminal
proceedings.
Predict, that the investigating judge, court – they can
issue a separate resolution, якою визнати порушення строків повернення вилученого
майна та направити її до дисциплінарного органу, or to resolve the issue of
registration of criminal proceedings with the relevant authorities.
We emphasize, without making changes, what
will make the BEB the only body for investigating economic and other crimes
fundamental changes in the Communist Party of Ukraine, specified in the application – not possible
solve the problem of pressure on business.
We call on people's deputies to hold
discussion of proposals developed by the business and to finalize project No. 10440 to
first reading, включивши у нього запропоновані представниками бізнесу норми.
Sincerely,
Бізнес-асоціації:
Торгово промислова палата Асоціація платників податків України Європейська Бізнес Асоціація Асоціація підприємців-ветеранів Всеукраїнська Аграрна Рада Асоціація приватних роботодавців Асоціація правників України Бізнес-спільнота Board Бізнес-спільнота CLUB100 Нафтогазова асоціація України Kharkiv IT Cluster Асоціація Борошномели України Всеукраїнська професійна асоціація підприємців Асоціація Software Ukraine
Association Ukrkondprom Український клуб аграрного бізнесу Українська Федерація Індустрії Безпеки
Members of the Ukrainian Business Council, which includes 110 business associations of various sectors of the economy, analyzeddraft law No. 5420 regarding the criminalization of smuggling and came to a conclusion, that in the proposed to 2 reading the editorial, this project poses significant threats to law-abiding business, since its provisions are formulated in this way, whatcontain significant corruption risks, and also pose a threat to the activity of primarily legal business and in no way contribute to solving the problem of shadow imports.
First of all, it should be emphasized, that the threshold of criminal liability under Article 201-3 of the draft law is unreasonably low. In particular, criminal liability is proposed in case of illegal movement of goods across the customs border in the amount of, with a share of more than 1,342 million. Instead, for the qualification of a criminal offense according to the article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (CCU) "Tax evasion", the threshold of criminal liability for tax evasion (which are customs payments) is 4,026 million.
Since such changes relate specifically to responsibility for economic crimes and public danger consists precisely in non-payment of taxes and other payments, then it is advisable to be guided by those similar to the content of the article 212 KKU criteria for determining the threshold of criminal responsibility. More, the issue of the customs value of goods is often the subject of a dispute between the declarant and the customs authority, and therefore cannot act as a threshold for criminal liability.
Significant risks for honest business are also seen in the proposed version of the Notes to Art. 201 CCU, which refers to smuggling, including the submission of documents to the customs authority as a basis for the movement of goods, containing false information about the name of the goods, their weight or quantity, country of origin, sender or recipient, the number of cargo spaces, their markings and numbers, false information, necessary to determine the product code according to the Ukrainian classification of goods of foreign economic activity and its customs value, which led or could lead to an unlawful exemption from payment of customs payments or a reduction in their amount. In practice, when declaring goods, the customs authority and the declarant often have disputes regarding the determination of the customs value, product code, country of origin, scales, etc. More, proposed revision of the article 201-3 does not imply necessityproving intent to commit a criminal offense.
The association "Ukrkondprom" is the only one
branch association of confectionery manufacturers, food concentrates,
starch products and coffee in Ukraine, and unites closely 30 leading enterprises,
which provide approx 60% confectionery, 70% food concentrate and coffee,
and 90% - starch and molasses production in Ukraine.
The association was very surprised, when I found out,
what 24 August 2023 Vysotskyi Taras Mykolayovych was informed of the suspicion of
committing a criminal offence, provided for in. 2 Article. 364 CC of Ukraine,
that is, on purpose, for the purpose of obtaining an illegal benefit for a legal entity
use by an official of an official position contrary to the interests of the service,
which caused serious consequences.
After all, since the beginning of a full-scale war
Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, including T. Vysotskyi, actually engaged
those, which saved the humanitarian situation in the country in extremely difficult conditions,
when a significant part of food enterprises stopped their activities altogether.
Enterprises in the first weeks of the war
worked in extremely difficult conditions, production processes were disrupted due to mass exodus
employees, inability to find new staff, destruction of logistics processes,
broken supply chains, loss of access to raw materials, and other associated risks
with massive shelling by the Russians and the occupation of certain regions.
