The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is ready to hold consultations with the Verkhovna Rada on a bill that introduces criminal liability for smuggling at the border and assistance to it, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.

"We have prepared a draft law on criminal responsibility. We will hold consultations with the parliament in order to improve the document and make a decision. Our plan and interaction will gain momentum," he told the Segodnya newspaper published on Monday.

Groysman also expressed hope that the State Fiscal Service would not stop the process of establishing order at the border within its authority.

As reported, on July 3, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine submitted to the Verkhovna Rada bill No. 8543 introducing amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedural Codes of Ukraine regarding the criminalization of the smuggling of goods.

The government proposes the new edition of Article 201 of the Criminal Code, according to which the punishment for the smuggling of goods "on a large scale" should be imprisonment for a period of three to seven years.

Currently, such liability is provided for the movement across Ukraine's border (outside of customs control) of cultural property, poisonous, explosive substances, radioactive materials, weapons, ammunition and special technical means of secretly receiving information.

The Cabinet proposes 15- to 20-year jail terms with confiscation of property for the smuggling of goods "on a massive scale."

According to the bill, if the above-mentioned offenses are committed by an organized group or smuggling is "on an especially large scale," guilty persons will face imprisonment from eight to 15 years with confiscation of property.

The bill proposes to define that smuggling of goods is considered to be "on a large scale" if its cost exceeds the non-taxable minimum of citizens' incomes by 500 or more times, "on a massive scale" if the cost is 2,000 or more times higher than the non-taxable minimum, "on an especially large scale" if its cost is 5,000 or more times exceeds such a minimum.

The crimes related to the smuggling will be investigated by the National Police or the investigating authorities, which monitor the compliance with the tax legislation that initiated the pretrial investigation.