The Law Enforcement Legislative Support Committee considered the Bill on Amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine, The Administrative Offences Code of Ukraine, and several other Laws of Ukraine (appertaining to characterising crimes and offences, delineation of liability for property theft, and guarantees for ensuring the property rights of citizens), introduced by the People´s Deputies, V. Malyshev and H. Moskal.
The Bill (Reg. No. 1326-1 dd 20.02.2008), introduced to replace Bill Reg. No. 1326 dd 19.02.2008, proposes revised wording for Paragraph 22.5, Clause 22 of the Law, ‘On Natural Persons´ Income Tax´ discrimination, establishing a different amount of the minimum untaxed income for the purpose of The Criminal Code, and for the purpose of The Administrative Offences Code of Ukraine.
For the purpose of the latter, the untaxed minimum income amounts to 10 percent of a monthly minimum wage, as established in the Law as of 1 January of the financial year at issue.
For the purpose of The Criminal Code of Ukraine it remains unchanged and equals 50 per cent of the minimum wage. Only the formulation is changed to make the calculations easier. A theft is usually characterized by the value of the property stolen. The theft of property up to three minimum untaxed incomes (currently UAH 772, and UAH 154.5 upon amendments proposed) is attributed to administrative infraction. ‘Since the same item for each victim has a different value depending on the level of his/her income´, the Sponsors of the Bill suggest an additional theft characterisation criterion, i.e. if the value of the stolen property is above 20 percent of the victim´s monthly income. The latter will be established from certificates produced by the victim (wage certificate, Retirement Benefit certificate, etc).
Thus, believe the Sponsors, social justice will be achieved, when criminal liability for theft of property from a retiree, whose Retirement Benefit is UAH 470 will ensue, where the value of the property exceeds UAH 47, irrespective of the minimum untaxed income. This approach will be applied to all those whose monthly income falls below UAG 1,545 (10 percent of which is less than UAH 154.5). Where a property is stolen from a person whose monthly income is above UAH 1.545, criminal liability will ensue starting from 3 minimum untaxed incomes of UAH 154.50.
Volodymyr Moisyk, Committee Chairman, presenting the Bill, noted that currently a theft in the amount of UAH 772.50 does not lead to criminal liability. However this amount is often higher than the wage large sectors of the population receive. It exceeds the size of students´ scholarships, and also the minimum Retirement Benefit for those who have reached retirement age.
Volodymyr Malyshev, one of the Sponsors, expressed his regret at the Law adopted in 2003, which actually enables criminals to deprive citizens of their property, without bearing any responsibility or liability for their crime. The Bill, if passed, will correct this situation.
Committee members upheld the Bill. They believe that its passing will provide effective protection for the property rights of citizens, and an inevitable and adequate liability for thefts according to their social danger. It will also remove any possible concealment of crimes by the Police, since they will have to investigate each case, and establish the offender irrespective of the value of the property stolen.
The outcome of the Meeting resulted in a decision recommending that The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopts this Bill as a basis for further deliberations.