Excise Offenses – Problems in Defining the Object of Crimes

The present article investigates the subject of offense under Article 234 of the Bulgarian Criminal Code. Currently, the systematic structure of the Criminal Code envisages this article to be a provision under the section that regulates different economic sectors, despite the current amendments of 18.01.2019. This systematic structure contradicts the legislator’s will to provide comprehensive protection of public relations. In this sense, it is not clear whether the guarded interest is relevant to an individual business sector or to the financial system. This is because, according to the constitutional principles, private business interests, such as the ones enshrined under Article 234 of the Criminal Code, cannot and should not be protected. On the other hand, the legislator has provided legal protection on the interests of the state’s financial system by directing the protection to the excise tax as a kind of indirect tax. The latter is a Republican tax related to the revenue part of the state budget; hence, the wording of the provisions of Article 234 of the Criminal Code aims to provide protection on precisely this kind of tax, not over the alcohol or tobacco industry. However, the legislator, by adopting the current systematic structure, provides legal protection on public relations regarding the proper functioning of the aforementioned economic sectors. This approach, of course, is defined by the author as incorrect and contradictory.