Putin instructs that decision be made by Sept 1 on amnesty for forced FX violations

MOSCOW. Aug 17 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government, together with the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) to made decisions by September 1 to ensure that an amnesty is granted to residents who failed to comply with the requirements of Russian currency legislation during the moratorium on application of liability to them for failure to comply with these requirements, if this was prompted by sanctions.

This item is contained in the list of instructions issues following the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum published on the Kremlin website.

Earlier, Putin instructed the Russian government and the Bank of Russia to ensure the extension for the 2023-2025 period of the moratorium on the application of liability to residents for failure to fulfill the requirements of Russian currency legislation due to sanctions.

Speaking at the SPIEF, the president proposed that an amnesty be declared for businesses on forced violations of currency legislation for the period of the moratorium on penalties for them, which, according to him, was due to be extended to 2024. "We have already simplified the regulation of foreign trade many times, reduced the penalties for violations of currency legislation many times and, I would like to emphasize, completely removed them in the case of external unfriendly actions. By the way, this moratorium will be extended to next year, 2024. I propose declaring an amnesty for businesses for forced currency violations committed during the moratorium period. And to completely close this issue, so that then there would be no grounds to hold business accountable retroactively," he said.

A moratorium on administrative liability for a number of violations of currency legislation, if caused by sanctions, was initially introduced for the period from February 23 to December 31, 2022. It was then extended through the end of 2023. Under the moratorium, the application of a number of articles of the Administrative Offenses Code (illegal FX transactions, failure to fulfill in due time the obligation to transfer revenue, failure to fulfill the obligation to credit accounts, termination of obligations under a foreign trade agreement, failure to return funds for goods not imported) was suspended.

According to Article 15.25 of the Administrative Offenses Code, which was in effect before the moratorium was introduced, citizens, individual entrepreneurs and legal entities may be fined from 75% to 100% of the amount of the illegal FX transaction for illegal FX transactions. The fine for officials may range from 20,000 to 30,000 rubles.