The draft law that seeks to ban circulation of digital currencies such as bitcoin in Russia will enter the country’s legislative assembly Duma later than expected, Coinfox reported. Russian Deputy Minister of Finance confirmed last month that the draft law will be passed to the State Duma during the current session.

Explaining the reasons behind the delay, the Ministry of Finance said that the document still needs a lot of corrections. Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev told Banki.ru that various additions and corrections to what was regarded as the final version of the draft are being made after several comments and suggestions were received from reviewers.

However, Moiseev clarified that the basic guideline of the document remains unchanged – up to 7 years in prison for issuance and exchange operations with cryptocurrency, bitcoin included.

“We carry on working on the draft law, however, it is taking its time. Every person who starts reading it again and again says we need to clarify the wording. So we are clarifying it,” Coinfox quoted Moiseev.

The ministry still plans to introduce the bill to the parliament before the closing of the spring session early in July, Coinfox reported.

Last month, the Russian Finance Ministry prepared amendments to the law "On the Central Bank", which not only prohibits the production and turnover of cryptocurrency in the country, but also proposes companies involved in mining of digital currencies to face a fine of 3-5 million rubles (approximately $44,000-$74,000 according to current exchange rate) or administrative suspension of activity for up to 90 days.

Individuals issuing digital currencies could face a fine up to 500,000 rubles or imprisonment up to 4 years. Organized groups, for the same offense, are punishable by a fine of 500,000 rubles to 1 million rubles or the salary or other income for a period of 2 to 4 years, or imprisonment for up to 6 years.

Stricter penalty was proposed for top managers of financial institutions, who could face up to 7 years of imprisonment with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years or a fine of 1 million rubles to 2.5 million rubles.

The news follows recent remarks made by Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatov that suggested the possible development of such phenomena as the national digital currency as well as the interest of the banking sector in the distributed ledger technologies.