The GOVERNMENT of Robert Fico is looking for money to fulfill the promises it made regarding social programs and is thus considering taking away a part of future pensions for this purpose. According to the Pravda daily, the cabinet is expected to deal with the issue of whether the payroll taxes currently paid to social insurer Sociálna Posiťovňa (SP) and to private pension management companies are correct.
People who joined the so-called second pension pillar currently pay 9 percent of their wages to SP and another 9 percent to their private accounts in pension management companies DSS. However, the money paid to DSS is lacking in the state budget and Fico refuses to cover the shortage through privatization.
According to Fico the proportion of the payments to SP and DSS is the worst thing that could have happened. “We see no other way but to decrease payments to pension management companies,” said the PM at yesterday’s conference of the Klub 500 employers association.
“Until 2010, when the money for pension reform is available from the privatization of the Slovak gas utility SPP, other ways [of financing the deficit] should be sought,” said Peter Goliaš, analyst with the INEKO think tank.
He considers savings in public finance expenditures to be an ideal place to find such funding. Another possibility is that the state could start borrowing money to cover the pension reform by issuing bonds.
According to Jozef Paška, head of the Allianz - Slovenská dôchodková spoločnosť DSS, this topic should be de-politicized.
“We will support solutions in which the current value of payments remains unchanged because the people who joined the reform agreed with it,” he said.
