The government has decided to amend the Criminal Procedure Code Act so that fines can be increased based on the current monetary value.
Accordingly, it has been proposed in the Criminal Procedure Code Amendment Bill to increase the fine from 500 rupees to 10 lakh rupees for bribery in an election.
It is stated that the related bill has been gazetted as per the order of Justice Minister Dr. Wijayadasa Rajapaksa.
Accordingly, the relevant amendment has been proposed to raise the existing fine of 500 rupees to 1 million rupees for bribery in connection with an election and to increase the fine of 200 rupees to 750,000 rupees for bribery.
The bill to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure has proposed to increase the fine from 500 rupees to 1 lakh rupees for the offense of undue influence in an election, and the fine from 300 rupees to 1 lakh rupees for the offense of impersonating someone else in an election.
The bill will be presented to the parliament in the near future.