The President of Kyrgyzstan returned to the Parliament amendments to the Law «On the Protection of the Health of Citizens of Kyrgyzstan from the Consequences of Tobacco Consumption, Nicotine and Exposure to Ambient Tobacco Smoke and Aerosol», to the Code of Offenses and to the Criminal Code, previously approved by deputies.
As it is explained on the parliament’s website, the document was returned with the objections of the head of state. Sadyr Japarov notes that when adopting the bill, certain comments from the Cabinet of Ministers were not taken into account.
For example, the initiator of the amendments, Shaiyrbek Tashiev, among other things, proposes to toughen the punishment for illegal import of electronic cigarettes in the form of an administrative fine from 1,500 to 2,000 calculated rates or imprisonment for a term from one to two years.
The President points out that the description of the crime does not specify the threshold amount of damage for which the punishment is proposed, which means that all those responsible will have to bear criminal liability regardless of the amount of imported goods (insignificant, significant, large, especially large).
The document was returned to the Parliament to develop an agreed version.
Before summer recess, the deputies approved amendments to the Law «On the Protection of the Health of Citizens of Kyrgyzstan from the Consequences of Tobacco Consumption, Nicotine and Exposure to Ambient Tobacco Smoke and Aerosol», to the Code of Offenses and to the Criminal Code in the second and third readings. The author of the bill, deputy Shaiyrbek Tashiev, responded that at the request of colleagues, fines for using vapes for individuals were reduced from 40,000 to 10,000 soms.
