Kyrgyzstan's President withdraws e-cigarette amendment bill due to lack of clear penalty standards

Kyrgyzstan's President withdraws e-cigarette amendment bill due to lack of clear penalty standards

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov returned the e-cigarette amendment passed by the parliament because the cabinet's opinions were not taken into account, and asked for a reconsideration and clarification of the penalty standards. The amendment includes increasing the penalties for illegally importing e-cigarettes.

According to 24.KG on August 23, the President of Kyrgyzstan returned the amendments to the Law on Protecting the Health of Kyrgyz Citizens from Tobacco Consumption, Nicotine and Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Aerosols, the Code of Offences, and the Criminal Code to the parliament.

According to the parliament's official website, the document was returned due to the objection of the head of state.

President Sadyr Japarov pointed out that some opinions of the cabinet were not taken into account when the bill was passed.

For example, the initiator of the amendments, Shaiyrbek Tashiev, proposed to increase penalties for illegal import of e-cigarettes, ranging from administrative fines of 1,500 to 2,000 calculated rates, or to impose a prison sentence of one to two years.

The president noted that the description of the crime does not clearly define the threshold of the amount of damage for which penalties are proposed, which means that all responsible persons must bear criminal responsibility regardless of the amount of imported goods (negligible, large, large, extremely large).

The document was returned to the parliament to develop a consensus version.

Before the summer recess, deputies had adopted amendments to the Law on Protection of the Health of Citizens of Kyrgyzstan from Tobacco Consumption, Nicotine and Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Aerosols, amendments to the Code of Offences, and amendments to the Criminal Code in the second and third readings.

The bill's sponsor, MP Shaiyrbek Tashiev, responded that after discussion, the fine for personal use of e-cigarettes was reduced from 40,000 som (about $470) to 10,000 som (about $120).