'Enforcement of national penalties - fines' in document 'Serbia - Criminal Code'

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RELEVANT SECTIONS OF THE IMPLEMENTING LEGISLATION

GENERAL PART

Chapter Four
PENALTIES

1. Purpose of Punishment, Types of Punishment and Requirements for Imposition thereof

General Provisions on Fines
Article 48

(1) A fine may be determined and pronounced either in daily amounts (Article 49) or a particular amount (Article 50).

(2) A fine for criminal offences committed for gain may be pronounced as secondary punishment even when not stipulated by law or when the law stipulates that the perpetrator may be punished with imprisonment or fine, and the court pronounces imprisonment as the principal punishment.

Fine in Daily Amounts
Article 49

(1) A fine in daily amounts shall be determined by first defining the number of daily amounts and then the sum of the daily amount. The final amount of the fine shall be determined by the court by multiplying the adjudicated number of daily amounts with the value of one daily amount.

(2) The number of daily amounts may not be less than ten nor exceed three hundred and sixty days. The number of daily amounts for the committed criminal offence shall be determined in accordance with the general rules for determining penalties (Article 54).

(3) The sum of one daily amount is determined by dividing the difference between the income and expenditures of the perpetrator during the previous year by the number of days in the year. A single daily amount may not be under five hundred dinars or more than fifty thousand dinars.

(4) For the purpose of determining the daily amount the court may request information from banks and other financial institutions, government authorities and legal entities who are obliged to deliver the requested information and may not invoke protection of business or other secret.

(5) If it is not possible to obtain verified information on the income and expenses of the perpetrator, or if he does not generate any income, but owns property or holds property rights, the court shall as a rough estimate determine the daily amount based on the available information. The number of daily amounts is determined within the following ranges :

1) up to sixty for criminal offences punishable by imprisonment up to three months ;
2) from thirty to one hundred and twenty for criminal offences punishable by imprisonment up to six months ;
3) from sixty to one hundred and eighty for criminal offences punishable by imprisonment up to one year ;
4) from one hundred and twenty to two hundred and forty for criminal offences punishable by imprisonment up to two years ;
5) at least one hundred and eighty for criminal offences punishable by imprisonment up to three years.
6) within the prescribed amount for criminal offences where a fine is prescribed as the only penalty.

Fine in Particular Amount
Article 50

(1) If it is not possible to determine the amount of a daily amount either based on the rough estimate of the court (Art. 49, para 5), or collecting of such information would significantly prolong the criminal proceedings, the court shall pronounce a fine in set amount within the stipulated range of minimum and maximum fine.

(2) A fine may not be less than ten thousand dinars. A fine may not exceed one million dinars and in case of criminal offences committed for gain more than ten million dinars.

(3) A fine as principal punishment is pronounced in the following amounts :

1) up to one hundred thousand dinars for criminal offences punishable by imprisonment up to three months ;
2) from twenty thousand to two hundred thousand dinars for criminal offences punishable by imprisonment up to six months ;
3) from thirty thousand to three hundred thousand dinars for criminal offences punishable by imprisonment up to one year ;
4) from fifty thousand to five hundred thousand dinars for criminal offences punishable by imprisonment up to two years ;
5) at least one hundred thousand dinars for criminal offences punishable by imprisonment up to three years.
6) within the prescribed amount for criminal offences where a fine is prescribed as the only penalty.

Enforcement of Fine
Article 51

(1) The time period for payment of a fine is defined in the judgement and may not be less than fifteen days or more than three months. In justifiable cases the court may allow the convicted person to pay the fine in instalments where the period of payment may not exceed one year.

(2) If the convicted person fails to pay the fine within the set period, the court shall replace the fine with a term of imprisonment, by converting each one thousand dinars into one day of imprisonment, provided that the term of imprisonment may not exceed six months, and if the pronounced fine exceeds seven hundred thousand dinars, the term of imprisonment may not exceed one year.

(3) If the convicted person pays only a part of the fine, the court shall convert pro rata the remaining amount of the fine to a term of imprisonment, and if the convicted person pays the remaining amount of the fine, enforcement of the prison sentence shall be discontinued.

(4) An unpaid fine may instead of imprisonment be replaced with a community service order, by converting each one thousand dinars into eight hours of community service, provided the total duration of community service does not exceed three hundred and sixty hours.

(5) After death of the convicted person the fine shall not be enforced.