Translated material
Dispute about "silent people"
MEDT and Ministry of Health and Social Development will argue about pension projects
The Ministry of Economic Development insists on not just maintaining the funded pension system in Russia, but radically raising the role of private management companies in it. This was stated yesterday by Deputy Head of the Ministry of Economic Development Andrei Sharonov. As Said Batkibekov, director of the Department of Social and Economic Development Programs of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, then explained, the department presented its own proposals for reforming the pension system. In February, the Ministry of Economic Development will introduce amendments to the government to the law on investing pension savings, allowing the management of funds of the so-called “silent ones”, that is, those who have not chosen any specific company for this (their funds are automatically transferred to Vnesheconombank), private management companies.The other day it became known about a bill prepared by the Ministry of Health and Social Development headed by Mikhail Zurabov, which proposes sending the accumulative pension funds of the “silent people”, which are managed by Vnesheconombank, to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, which is experiencing a chronic shortage of funds. In fact, this means that the savings of the “silent people” would be used to pay pensions to current pensioners.
According to the Ministry of Health and Social Development, the “silent ones” will nevertheless have the right to transfer to private management companies for five years. To encourage Russians to independently form the funded part of their pension and enter into agreements with non-state pension funds, Mikhail Zurabov proposes introducing tax incentives. Those who are unable to make their choice will receive not the money they have accumulated, but state guarantees for a fixed pension upon reaching the legal age.
In favor of switching to such a scheme, the Ministry of Health and Social Development puts forward a simple argument - a shortage of pension funds. However, as ministry officials admit, the proposed draft solution to this problem is “still crude and requires improvement.”
The Ministry of Economic Development, for its part, proposes to automatically distribute the funds of the “silent people” among private management companies. According to Said Batkibekov, if a citizen wants to keep his funds in a state management company, then he should have such a right, but for this he will need to write a notification to the Pension Fund. According to Mr. Batkibekov, the amendments will increase the profitability of savings savings. True, the mechanism for selecting private management companies, according to him, is not yet spelled out in the bill and will be approved by a separate government document. The mechanism for distributing funds from “silent people” among private management companies is also incomplete. “Apparently, they will be distributed in proportion to the structure of investment in securities,” he explained. In other words, the alternative project of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade looks “raw” and requires “refinement”.
Today, according to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the draft law of the Ministry of Economic Development has been agreed upon with the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Commission for Financial Markets and the Pension Fund. Disagreements remain only with the Ministry of Health and Social Development. As Mr. Batkibekov explained, it is possible that even after the conciliation meeting, the project will be submitted to the government with unresolved differences.
Two years ago, the state already excluded citizens born in 1967 from the funded part of pensions. Now new adjustments are being proposed, and much more radical ones. Such frequent attempts to reshape the pension system do not add confidence to it and once again indicate that pension reform has reached a dead end. And politicians are already earning points by criticizing the new project of the Ministry of Health and Social Development. As State Duma Speaker and United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov said yesterday, commenting on this bill, “this is an ideology that will lead to deception.” However, he did not propose a different ideology.