Sanctions supervisor: fines for illegal transportation of alcohol can reduce

The Administrative Code may include a special provision on fixed liability for non-declaration of tobacco and alcohol. Such a bill of the Ministry of Finance was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. Now, in case of violation, it is necessary to pay an amount that can reach the total cost of the goods. But the bill plans to limit the amount of the fine — its upper limit will be 20 thousand rubles. Experts note that the amendments are aimed at mitigating responsibility and reducing the burden on customs authorities. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

Why do they mitigate responsibility?

Fixed fines for undeclared transportation of alcohol and tobacco through customs may be introduced in Russia. Such amendments were approved on June 9 by the government commission on legislative activity (the document is available to Izvestia), sources of the editorial office in the Cabinet of Ministers reported.

The bill proposes to amend the articles of the Administrative Code on liability for non-declaration or false declaration of goods, said Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Lawyers of Russia.

— The legislator specifies the concept of the "Customs Union", replacing it with the "Eurasian Economic Union," he said. — It is necessary to harmonize the norms of the Administrative Code and the Customs Code of the EAEU in order to improve and simplify the understanding of customs regulation in Russia.

Now, according to him, non-declaration of goods entails an administrative fine for individuals ranging from half the value of the imported goods to twice the price, but not 1 thousand rubles.

— The amendments will add exceptions for certain types of imported products, — Vladimir Gruzdev explained. — For the import of tobacco products, the limit is 250 cigarettes (currently 200 — Ed.), for alcoholic beverages — 10 liters of drinks (now 3 liters — Ed.).

Exceeding this limit will result in a fine of 5,000 to 20,000 rubles, and may also be accompanied by confiscation of infringing items. The bill also mentions cases of exemption from administrative responsibility.

"A person may be released from administrative responsibility for false declaration of goods if the error was revealed by the declarant himself before the goods were released," he added.

In 2024, customs officers initiated 1,914 administrative cases for violations of tobacco or alcohol declarations. A year earlier, this figure was 1,246 cases.

"In addition, the changes will reduce the cost of conducting examinations assigned to assess the value of seized items, reduce administrative costs, and ensure procedural savings," the authors of the bill note.

The average cost of the examination is 26.5 thousand rubles.

How the rules of baggage transportation are violated

A similar approach is planned to be implemented for non-declaration of goods that are not subject to customs duties. For example, these are clothes, shoes, hats, umbrellas, jewelry, and personal hygiene items.

Undeclared goods are regularly detected by customs officers at the border. For example, as the press service of the Federal Customs Service reported on June 9, customs officers found 282 packages of Labubu toys at Irkutsk airport from a Russian who arrived from Beijing.

"The passenger, who was moving boxes weighing 46 kg, was stopped in the "green" corridor. During the inspection of his luggage, the inspectors revealed the popular monster charms. The man explained that he had purchased the product in China for resale in Russia. The party is recognized as commercial. The toys were seized and sent for examination to determine their value," the department said. A case on non-declaration of goods has been initiated.

In early May, Sakhalin customs officers stopped the illegal import of spare parts and equipment for construction machinery from China. Two men were stopped in the customs control area. During the inspection of the suitcases, among their personal belongings, customs officers found more than 9 kg of spare parts for an excavator in one, and more than 16 kg of computer equipment designed for crane diagnostics in the other.

"The passengers explained that they were delivering goods at the request of a commercial organization. They did not know about the customs rules, and they admitted the guilt of violating the rules when transporting goods not for personal use. A case has been initiated under the article on non-declaration. The goods have been seized. The men face fines and confiscation of infringing items," the FCS said.

In March 2025, Sheremetyevo Airport customs officers used an X-ray machine to identify almost 4.2 thousand packages of chewing gum weighing 119 kg in four suitcases of air passengers flying to Samarkand. The men explained that they had purchased the goods at one of the Moscow markets for the purpose of subsequent sale in Uzbekistan.

"The examination revealed that these are nicotine-containing products with a total value of 1 million 730 thousand rubles. Two cases have been initiated. The sanction of the article provides for a fine in the amount of one second to twice the value of the goods with their possible confiscation," the department said.

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At the same time, customs officers at Koltsovo Airport discovered almost 100 undeclared items made of Ural gems. A woman flying from Yekaterinburg to Bangkok was stopped on the "green" corridor. During the baggage inspection, customs officers found 93 items weighing almost 23 kg. Among them are rings, cufflinks, animal figurines and other yellow-and-white metal objects with stone inserts, as well as branded boxes.

"The woman explained that she bought jewelry in Yekaterinburg as a gift to relatives and friends and paid almost 79 thousand rubles for them. She did not know about the need to file a passenger declaration," the FCS said.

The examination revealed that some of the goods are made of silver and gold, and the parts are made of semiprecious stones: jasper, lapis lazuli, amber, agate, jade, amazonite, marble. The market value of all products is almost 220 thousand rubles.

How to transport goods correctly

The largest number of cases — almost 98.1 thousand — were initiated for violation of customs rules, including 68.7 thousand cases of contraband formations (including non-declaration of goods). Most often, the subjects of offenses were currency, tobacco, vegetable products, wood and products made from it, cars and alcohol.

As part of the initiated cases, customs officers collected 3.8 billion rubles in fines and transferred property worth more than 6 billion rubles to the authorized bodies.

Now, without declaring, it is allowed to move money in an amount not exceeding $ 10,000. Over this amount, they must be declared, the FCS recalled.

"If the amount of cash being transferred exceeds $100,000, then in addition to declaring it, you need to submit documents to the official that will confirm their origin. You do not need to declare money on a bank card. And monetary instruments (promissory notes, bank checks, bearer securities) must be declared regardless of the amount," the ministry stressed.

For duty—free import by air, the cost of goods must be up to 10 thousand euros, weight - up to 50 kg (with the exception of ethyl alcohol and alcoholic beverages with an alcohol concentration of more than 0.5 vol.%). When importing goods by land, the cost is up to €500, and the weight is up to 25 kg. If exceeded, a fee of 30% of the cost is charged, but not less than €4 per 1 kg of weight in excess.

Over the past few years, lawmakers have been following the path of mitigating liability for violations against participants in foreign economic activity, said Igor Rastorguev, a leading analyst at AMarkets.

— So, in 2020 and 2022, the rules of currency control were relaxed if the violation was caused by sanctions, the amount of administrative responsibility for individual violations was reduced, and responsibility for professional participants was reduced. — the expert reminded. — For a number of violations, the punishment has been replaced with a warning. These steps have reduced the financial and administrative burden on importers and exporters.

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Where will this money come from and will it help reduce the deficit?

According to the Federal Customs Service, in 2024, about 2.8 thousand administrative cases were related to the facts of false declaration of goods.

—That is, declarations with mistakes, involuntary and intentional," he said. — At the same time, the share of decisions in favor of applicants exceeded half.

At the same time, the bill may increase the corruption component, said judicial lawyer Ilya Vasilchuk.

— For example, in case of exemption from liability, if false information was revealed in the declaration, — said the expert. — Let's consider a situation in which a customs officer identifies such a violation, but instead of drawing up a protocol, he calls the declarant and offers to correct such a violation himself. If the penalty is insignificant, for example, an extra bottle of alcohol, then it is free, but if it is an extra truck of goods, then there is a risk of corruption.

The bill also provides for mitigation of liability under articles on non-declaration of cash by individuals and violation of the terms of temporary storage of goods. The legislators propose to introduce a "warning" as a sanction for these offenses.