site.btaFinance Minister: Christmas Bonuses Are Social, Not Pension Policy

118 POLITICS - FINANCE MINISTER - CHRISTMAS BONUSES

Finance Minister: Christmas
Bonuses Are Social, Not
Pension Policy


Sofia, November 28 (BTA) - The Christmas bonuses for the poorest
pensioners should be viewed as a social act and not as a
pension policy, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said in
Parliament on Friday, in response to Patriotic Front MP Velizar
Enchev's question why Christmas bonuses are not given to all
Bulgarian pensioners.

Enchev inquired whether there is room for additional cuts so
that all pensioners could get Christmas bonuses, because in his
words, paying bonuses only to pensioners with pensions below 286
leva (the poverty line) sends an unfair message to the senior
citizens and discriminates against some of them. The MP also
proposed that cuts made in Parliament be directed towards
pensioners.

Goranov said that he and Prime Minister Boyko Borissov have
decided that some projects related to the Public Investment
Programme could be re-examined and suspended in the parts where
no activity was carried out. These funds are directed towards
the payment of Christmas bonuses to Bulgarian pensioners. The
answer to whether or not such bonuses should be given to all is
related to the question whether this is part of pension policy
or part of the attempts for redistributing the burden of the
financial crisis, Goranov commented.

Goranov corrected Enchev by explaining that the current poverty
line is 251 leva and will become 286 leva at the beginning of
2015. Thus, an additional 184,000 Bulgarian pensioners will get
bonuses, the Minister explained, stressing once again that he
sees this as a policy for assisting the poorest pensioners and
not a pension policy.

Efforts are needed for the comprehensive reform in the pension
model, which would improve pensions' adequacy, while lowering
the financial deficit in the State Public Insurance Fund and its
dependency on tax revenue, Goranov said. He noted that payments
from the State Public Insurance Budget must be tied to the
principle of social insurance, as otherwise there is a risk for
undermining the Bulgarian social insurance model and the morals
behind it. LI/MY