A draft revision to the law on the Social Insurance Fund - implemented to reduce the deficit in the pension fund - cancels a rule which had made gainfully employed people receiving an old-age pension exempt from the mandatory contributions to insurance and pension funds. The rule had also given the employers of old-age pensioners an exemption from contributing to these funds.
The Ministry of Labour estimates that the proposed measure will reduce the expected deficit of the Social Insurance Fund by 1.2 billion crowns. However, the director of the Social Insurance Company, Igor Liptak, expects no radical reduction of the deficit as a consequence of this measure. In his opinion, it will only lower the motivation of employers to employ pensioners.
The revision also changes the minimum and maximum bases for the calculation of payments to healthcare insurance and pension funds. The minimum basis would grow from the current 3,000 crowns monthly to 4,000 crowns, and the maximum limit would go up from 24,000 crowns to 32,000 crowns monthly.
The cabinet approved both revisions last week, and parliament plans to deal with it in the weeks to come.
22. Nov 1999 at 0:00 | From press reports of TASR and SITA
