29 March 2024, Friday, 2:34
Support
the website
Sim Sim,
Charter 97!
Categories

Hole Appeared In Pension Fund

21
Hole Appeared In Pension Fund
PHOTOS: TUT.BY

The presence of a problem with the Social Protection Fund budget in Belarus has been repeatedly confirmed by international experts.

The Social Protection Fund’s expenditures amounted to 12.2 billion rubles last year, and the size of the "hole" in it, which had to be offset against the expense of the budget, was 1.2 billion rubles. As noted in the principal journal Finance, Accounting, Audit, that was 184 million rubles less than in 2016. This is written by Tut.by writes about it.

The "hole" in the Social Protection Fund budget, from which pensions, scholarships and benefits are paid, is traditionally offset against subsidies from the budget, and the Ministry of Finance the imbalance of the Social Protection Fund one of the main threats to budgetary stability in the short-term period.

This year, subventions from the republican budget to the budget of the Social Protection Fund have already been planned in the amount of 1.416 billion rubles. This will be required to ensure the ratio of the average old-age pension size and the average workers’ salary in the republic not lower than the established threshold (40%). Now we have stopped well short of the threshold. The average size of old-age pensions was 323.1 rubles in January 2018, or 36.6% of the average salary, although a year ago the ratio was more favorable – 41.2%. At that, in 2018, pensions will be evaluated in Belarus only once.

As previously reported, in 2016, the retirement age was increased in Belarus for a reason – the deficit of the fund forced either to go to the length of such an unpopular measure, or to freeze, or even reduce the amount of payments. The phased increase of the retirement age up to 58 years for women and 63 for men started on January 1, 2017. At that, the ratio of pensioners and employees did not changed significantly: 597 per 1,000 employees in January this year against 598 a year ago.

The presence of the problem with Social Protection Fund budget in Belarus has been repeatedly confirmed by international experts. The IMF, in particular, urged the authorities to continue pension reforms in order to eliminate the pension gap after 2022. The gradual increase in the retirement age threshold up to 65 years for both men and women is among the measures proposed by experts.

Write your comment 21

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts