Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman sais he is convinced that smuggling must be made a criminal offense, and is ready to initiate the respective changes to legislation, the press service of the Cabinet said in a statement on 31 August.
"We need to initiate legislative changes to render smuggling a criminal offense. Because smuggling steals payments to the budget, i.e. people's salaries, pensions, military wages and everything else," Groysman said at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
It should be noted that the Criminal Code (Article 201) provides for liability only for the smuggling of cultural values, poisonous, virulent, explosives, radioactive materials, weapons and ammunition (except for the smooth-bore hunting guns and ammunition to it), as well as special technical means for obtaining secret information.