Fri, May 18, 2012
Tobacco Reporter Magazine Content:
Happy New Year for illicit producers
Jan 20, 2010—A new Czech Penal Code, in effect since January 1, has proved to be a boon to some illicit cigarette producers, according to a report in the Prague Daily Monitor.
Under the new Code, preparing to evade taxation is no longer a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a punishment that now can be imposed only for actual tax evasion.
As a result, during the first week of the new year alone, two cases of alleged illicit cigarette production in north Bohemia have been turned around.
In the first case, two people originally charged with intending to evade taxation and facing the possibility of heavy prison sentences were eventually given two year suspended sentences. Police were said to have uncovered more than eight million illicit cigarettes at their workshop in 2005.
They were originally charged with having prepared to evade taxation, but the charge had to be changed to cover lesser offences to do with trade mark violations and breaches of certain directives, said Jana Kuresova, deputy head of the regional court in Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia.
Jan 20, 2010—A new Czech Penal Code, in effect since January 1, has proved to be a boon to some illicit cigarette producers, according to a report in the Prague Daily Monitor.
Under the new Code, preparing to evade taxation is no longer a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a punishment that now can be imposed only for actual tax evasion.
As a result, during the first week of the new year alone, two cases of alleged illicit cigarette production in north Bohemia have been turned around.
In the first case, two people originally charged with intending to evade taxation and facing the possibility of heavy prison sentences were eventually given two year suspended sentences. Police were said to have uncovered more than eight million illicit cigarettes at their workshop in 2005.
They were originally charged with having prepared to evade taxation, but the charge had to be changed to cover lesser offences to do with trade mark violations and breaches of certain directives, said Jana Kuresova, deputy head of the regional court in Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia.
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