site.btaSocial Policy Minister: Proposal for Choice of Supplementary Retirement Insurance Will Inconvenience Business

Social Policy Minister: Proposal for Choice of Supplementary Retirement Insurance Will Inconvenience
Business


Sofia, December 18 (BTA) - Labour and Social Policy Minister
Ivailo Kalfin said the surprise decision about the choice of
supplementary compulsory retirement insurance was not good for
the business environment and did not ensure stability. Kalfin
talked to journalists before a business breakfast organized by
the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum.

The government proposed earlier this week that persons born
after December 31, 1959 should be able to choose, on a single
occasion within one year of entering the system, whether to have
their supplementary compulsory retirement insurance handled by
the National Social Security Institute (NSSI) or by a private
universal pension fund. The proposal was approved by the
Parliamentary Budget Committee.

The position set forth in the memorandum between the Prime
Minister and the trade unions based on this proposal has been
the subject of a dispute for 15 years, said Kalfin. He added
that Parliament should give people full freedom without urging
them to choose one over the other. Under the proposal, the right
to choose can be exercised only once in favour of the
pay-as-you-go model at the NSSI because people have no personal
accounts with it. According to Kalfin, this will not solve any
of the Institute's problems.

Universal funds will start paying supplementary pensions in
2020. The pension reform was put off until March 2015 because a
comprehensive solution is needed rather than isolated measures,
said Kalfin.

He also said that the social affairs appropriation for 2015 is
larger than this year's by 90 million leva.