The General Principles of my country's Criminal Law stipulates the general principle of discretionary fines, that is, determining the amount of fines based on the circumstances of the crime, but does not stipulate the specific amount of fines. In criminal law, the provisions on the amount of fines mainly include the following five situations:
1. Unlimited fine system. In other words, the sub-principles of the criminal law only stipulate the location, a single location or the fine, and do not stipulate the specific amount of the fine. Instead, the people's court determines the specific amount of the fine based on the circumstances of the crime based on the principles determined by the general provisions of the criminal law. In the case of unlimited fines, according to the provisions of Article 2 of the aforementioned judicial interpretation, the minimum fine amount shall not be less than 1,000 yuan; if a minor commits a crime and should be given a lighter or reduced punishment, the minimum fine amount shall not be less than 500 yuan.
2. Limit penalties. In other words, the criminal law stipulates the lower limit and upper limit of the amount of fines, and the people's court only needs to decide the fine within the prescribed amount. For example, Article 170 of the Criminal Law stipulates that anyone who counterfeits currency shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years and a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan. There are many similar provisions in the criminal law, mainly concentrated in the chapter on crimes of undermining the order of the socialist market economy.
3. Proportional fine system. That is, the amount of the fine is determined as a percentage of the crime amount. For example, according to Article 158 of the Criminal Law, the crime of falsely reporting registered capital is punishable by fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and also or solely by a fine of not less than 1% but not more than 5%.
4. Multiple fine system. That is, the amount of the fine is determined by a multiple of the crime amount. For example, Article 202 of the Criminal Law stipulates that anyone who refuses to pay taxes by means of violence or threats shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also be fined not less than 1 time but not more than 5 times. According to this provision, the amount of the fine depends on the amount of the crime. The greater the amount of the crime, the higher the amount of the fine; and vice versa.
5. Double fine system. That is, the amount of the fine is determined by both the proportion and multiple of the crime amount. For example, according to Article 141 of the Criminal Law, anyone who commits the crime of producing and selling counterfeit drugs shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also be fined not less than 50% but not more than twice the amount of the sales amount. Such provisions on the amount of fines mainly focus on the crime of producing and selling counterfeit and inferior goods stipulated in Section 1 of Chapter 3 of the Criminal Law.
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