The Minister of Investments and European Projects, Marcel Boloş, is of the opinion that the problem of updating and increasing pensions would not be solved if Romania remained in the PNRR with the ceiling of 9.4% of GDP for the pension system.
“The 9.4% ceiling in the pension system, which also includes special pensions, can be an obstacle in the future if the Government should take measures to update or increase pensions year after year to respond either to an upward evolution of inflation or other influences that are at the macroeconomic level. Should the Government, depending on them, update or increase the pensions.
The term for which we have this 50-year ceiling is a very long-term one, to maintain such a spending ceiling, given that the average of this spending ceiling in European states reaches somewhere around 13% of GDP. So it is clear that from this perspective I would not want it to be understood that – the European Commission follows us in our statements – that we want to eliminate this ceiling, but to replace the indicator with one that can also bring financial discipline. We thought that the share of state transfers to the social insurance budget in GDP should be a certain percentage. We haven’t determined it yet. We would like to replace it with another indicator in order to leave free the decision of the Government in the future regarding the updating of pensions, so that this indicator does not become a blockage or brake the measures that the Government should decide in times like this regarding inflation,” said Marcel Boloș, at Digi 24.
“Whatever measures we take on special pensions, we still need other measures”
The Minister of Investments continues and points out that “in other EU states there is no ceiling”.
“I can say for sure that we have the system of special pensions and these laws and replacement rates, the percentages by which these pensions are calculated, comparable to the other member states. The fundamental problem is the discrepancy between the special pension system with very heterogeneous income replacement rates, from percentages varying between 60% to 85%, when beyond that, in the general pension system, the percentage we are discussing is 43.5%, so here is Romania’s fundamental problem.
If we made this reduction of special pensions and stayed with the ceiling of 9.4% of GDP, we would not fundamentally solve the problem of updating and increasing pensions for 50 years, because we have almost 115 billion lei in the pension fund general and 12 billion euros in the special pensions fund, which shows that whatever measures we take regarding special pensions, we still need other measures to create the necessary budgetary space for the pension system”,
“Until we resolve the milestone with special pensions, we cannot move forward with the other milestones”
Marcel Boloș says that the Ministry of Labor is the coordinator of the reform.
“Until we resolve the milestone with the special pensions, which can be found in payment request number 3, we cannot move forward with the other milestones.
The Commission requested that the 3 reforms with a major budgetary impact – special pensions, general pensions and the law on the remuneration of budget officers – be analyzed for their impact to see what the macro impact is on the budget and to see if we ensure the sustainability condition for the 3 reforms , common condition”, points out the Government official.
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2023-05-03 05:55:59
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