site.bta National Council on Tripartite Cooperation Approves Ordinance on Transfer of Social Insurance Contributions

National Council on Tripartite Cooperation Approves Ordinance on Transfer of Social Insurance Contributions

Sofia, August 25 (BTA) - The National Council on Tripartite
Cooperation (NCTC) Tuesday approved a draft Council of Ministers
 decree on the Ordinance on the order and selection of social
insurance, payment and distribution of the compulsory social
insurance contributions, the contributions to the Guaranteed
Receivables of Workers and Employees Fund, and information
exchange.

Emerging from the NCTC meeting, Finance Minister Vladislav
Goranov told journalists that the ordinance will be tabled in
the Council of Ministers for adoption on Wednesday or at the
next meeting of the Cabinet. In his words, this is just a
technical document but it regulates the amendments to the Social
 Security Code, which gives people the freedom to choose where
to put the money for their pension.

He specified that these amendments and the ordinance's adoption
pose no threat to the activity of pension funds, which manage
people's money well and very conservatively.

Podkrepa Confederation of Labour President Dimiter Manolov said
that the ordinance will put in order the pension system. In his
words, until now the system has been a  non-market one, with big
 compulsory fees for which people receive no services.

Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association Chairman Vassil Velev
said that the amendments to the Social Insurance Code set the
pension system's second pillar against the first one (state
social insurance) instead of building on it. The ordinance still
 contains provisions which raise doubts that the transfer of
insured persons' accounts from the universal pension fund to the
 state social insurance and vice versa does not happen on an
equal footing, and people's choice is not informed enough, he
added.