May 6 2003, 11:26 APK-Inform

Deputies referred to Constitutional Court claiming Ukraine's "sugar law" unconstitutional

According to the Agency of Industrial News, a Constitutional Submission from 45 People's Deputies of Ukraine has been received by Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The Submission questions adequacy to Ukrainian Constitution of some provisions of the Law of Ukraine "About State Regulation of Production and Sales of Sugar".

In particular, Article 6 of the Law states that the Cabinet of Ministers sets each year a minimal price for sugar beet for production of sugar within the quotas "A" and "B" (domestic consumption and export), and also sets the minimal price for sugar, sold within quota "A".

According to the authors of the Submission, the establishment of minimal price for sugar violates the rights of the citizens - consumers of sugar - as it decreases their buying power and the level of their consumption of this product. Besides, this article also violates the rights of sugar producers, who are the owners of their product and, according to Article 41 of Ukrainian Constitution, have the right to dispose of their possessing at their own discretion.

Article 9 of the Law proceeds that in case of sugar deliveries to domestic market in excess of the established quota or sugar sales at prices, lower that the established minimal one, the guilty economic entity is charged a fine in the amount of doubled price of the sugar, sold with violation of the regulations.

Such an amount of fine, charged on the entrepreneurs, will actually lead to forcible extraction of their fixed and current assets and will ultimately result in their liquidation.

Such an approach to determining measure of responsibility contradicts to Article 41 of Ukraine's Constitution, which states that no one may be unlawfully deprived of their property, and also to Article 13 of the Law "About Entrepreneurship", specifying that the state guarantees inviolability of property and provides protection of an entrepreneur's possessing, and that extraction of fixed, current and other assets is inadmissible.

Proceeding from the above, the Deputies - authors of Submission - consider the cited articles of the Law to be unconstitutional and claim their bringing into accord with provisions of Ukrainian Constitution.

According to the Law "About Constitutional Court of Ukraine", the terms of consideration of a Constitutional Submission must not exceed 3 months. This means that by the start of the new sugar season the provisions of law about the minimal prices for sugar and sugar beet may have come out of effect.