What Article 91³ prohibits
Article 91³ of the Georgian Code of Administrative Offences concerns the quality standards for motor petrol and the composition standards for diesel fuel. Those standards are set by a decree of the Government of Georgia, and the article regulates three separate forms of conduct on the territory of Georgia: importing fuel that fails to meet them, producing such fuel, and supplying it.
The three parts do not replace one another. Each has its own elements and its own sanction, and which one an authority applies determines the size of the penalty. The text of the article states expressly that the fine falls on the offending natural or legal person, so liability is not confined to companies. In practice, cases under this article involve importers, fuel producers, petroleum product storage facilities and those supplying filling stations.
The sanction has two components
What is distinctive about Article 91³ is that the penalty in each part is made up of two elements: a fixed sum, plus a further amount arrived at by multiplication. In the wording of the law:
- Part 1 — import of petrol and/or diesel fuel that fails to meet the standards: 30,000 GEL, plus an amount equal to the customs value of the imported fuel multiplied by 10;
- Part 2 — production of such fuel: 30,000 GEL, plus an amount equal to the cost price of the actual volume (in litres) of fuel produced, multiplied by 10;
- Part 3 — supply of such fuel: 20,000 GEL, plus an amount equal to the delivery price, at the place of delivery, of the actual volume (in litres) placed at or intended for supply to a filling station or a petroleum products storage facility, multiplied by 5.
The fixed element never varies within a given part. The second element depends directly on the value and the volume of the fuel.
How the second component is calculated
The article carries three notes, and they exist precisely to define the basis of that calculation. For the purposes of Part 1, the customs value of the fuel means the price of the goods stated in the customs declaration. For the purposes of Part 2, cost price means the amount spent on producing the fuel. For the purposes of Part 3, the delivery price at the place of supply means the sale price of the fuel recorded during the inspection.
The structure of the calculation is the same in all three parts: the basis is established, it is multiplied by the figure the article sets, and the product is added to the fixed fine. The article names the multiplier — 10 under Parts 1 and 2, and 5 under Part 3 — but not the basis. Neither a value nor a volume appears anywhere in the provision; both are taken from the material in the particular case.
That is exactly why the declared price, the record of production costs or the price recorded at inspection is usually the central point of dispute in these cases. Changing the basis changes the second component directly, and because the multiplier is greater than one, any inaccuracy in the basis reaches the final figure already multiplied.