
In case of approval by Parliament of pension reform, retirement payments to be raised starting October 1
Prime
Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman
counts on Verkhovna Rada of
Ukraine to support Government’s draft law on the pension reform shortly - at
the current session of the Parliament which ends on July 15 – and in case it
adopted the Government will have an opportunity to increase retirement payments
already from October 1. This was stated by Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman during a
meeting with representatives of regional mass media dedicated to the theme
"Decentralization. Success stories. New challenges". In this context he added that the concept
of the reform would be introduced to the public in the nearest time.
“I believe
that with the support of the Parliament demonstrated by 226 MPs, we will be
able till the end of this session, till July 15, to adopt as basis and in
general, and from October 1 to increase pensions to all retirees in the country.
I understand how to introduce that and I am ready to assume responsibility. I appeal
to Ukrainian citizens and the Parliament for support. I am deeply convinced
that the system will be changed due to such support and it will work properly for
the benefit of the citizens”, stressed the Prime Minister.
The Prime
Minister added that it is vital to change the situation as well as to eradicate
processes through which 80% of Ukrainians receive the minimum pensions.
Volodymyr
Groysman drew attention to the fact that according to
officials, the pension reform should envisage three components: fairness
principle, deficit-free Pension Fund and improved pensions for the Ukrainian
citizens.
In
particular, a considerable amount of pensioners who in due time hadn't paid a
kopeck to the Pension Fund receive the same minimum pension, as those retirees
who were paying contributions to the Pension Fund. "It's not fair", urged
the Prime Minister.
The Head of
Government explained that the pension reform offered by the Government stipulates
for a number of measures that will allow the country to reduce completely for
the period of 7 years deficit of the Pension Fund which today exceeds UAH 140
billion and outstrips the security and defense budget for the current year.
"My
target is to create such a system which provides an opportunity to reduce the
Pension Fund’s deficit throughout 7 years to zero or close to zero,"
underlined Volodymyr Groysman.
At the same
time, the Head of Government assumes the pension reform will be criticized by
some politicians in a way a twofold rise of the minimum wage was potshot at the
time. Then the Government was criticized and today, "some politicians
claim that "they forced the Government to adopt such a decision”.
The
aforesaid decision yields positive results, so it was correct, which would also
be proved by the performance in the first quarter, summed up Volodymyr Groysman.