VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Vladimir Putin: How is the pension system doing in the second half of the year? What results do you expect by the end of the year?
Anton Drozdov: I would like to report to you on the main areas of work within the pension system. Indexation of the insured part of the pension by 8% on August 1 passed normally. On August 15, that is, 15 days before the deadline, we sent out notifications on the state of the personal accounts of the insured individuals who have an accumulated part of the pension. That is 64.7 million people. Those who only have the insured part will be notified starting October 1. That is another 20 million. Everything is proceeding on schedule in that department too.
Including indexation, the working pension by the end of the year will amount to 3,544 roubles. That is higher than a pensioner's living minimum. The draft budget, which has been examined by the Government and sent to the State Duma - the Pension Fund also took part in its preparation - envisages that the working pension will be more than 1.3 times the pensioner's living minimum at the end of next year and more than 1.6 times the living minimum by 2011. The social pension will be equal to the living minimum. Resources for maintaining that ratio are available.
A large amount of work is being done to implement the current Law On Additional Insurance Contributions to the Accumulated Part of the Pension as of October 1. Beginning October 1 every citizen can file an application with the pension authority to join this programme. He may start remitting money from January 1. He may file his application through the employer, directly through the transfer agent or through other persons if his signature is properly certified.
That is a very important programme, we pay great attention to it. We have restructured the work of our information service and the press service. We are preparing to launch a large-scale programme to explain all the provisions and the benefits of this law. In fact, a person will receive 100% annual interest on 12,000 roubles in the first year. The employer can also take part in this programme, in which case he will be exempt from paying the profit tax and the corresponding part of the Single Social Tax.
Then we have an important law that allows servicemen and those who were in the special services and in the civil service if they have five years of seniority to draw the insurance part of the pension. We are collaborating with these agencies. We have solved the main problems. What remains now is to check this contingent.
The Pension Fund is the most visited organisation in Russia: it has 12 million visitors every year. That is why we pay great attention to working with the population. We introduced such tools as the hot line, and the Pension Payment and Award Centre with an electronic waiting list.
We also conduct work in advance with those who expect to retire in order to provide a newly retired person with a pension within the shortest possible time. To this end we will have mobile client services which have access to the organisations which the pensioner finds it hard to reach for whatever reason, for example, because it is far from his home. This part of our work was introduced spontaneously. Initially we simply had a person with a notebook. Later client services sprang up.
I would like to note that the Pension Fund is preparing calculations and is interacting actively with the Ministry of Health and Social Development on improving pension legislation. It is important for us because the balanced pension system in the long term will contribute to stability and growth.
On the whole I would like to say that the staff of the Pension Fund is efficient and I see my task as its head in further strengthening the collective, making it work still more effectively and lending it a new quality so that it should be more considerate of the ordinary person.
Vladimir Putin: You have spoken about the development of the pension system. I hope you are taking a very active part in this work. As you know, the Ministry of Health and Social Development, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Economic Development and other agencies are actively engaged in solving this problem considering the changing population trends in the country and so on. You know about it. All that is for the future, but the decision must be taken now.
However, these decisions should not make us forget about our current work. If we do make these decisions this year and start implementing them next year we will have to ensure the indexation of pensions at the beginning of the year and in the second half of the year. If we make these decisions in the second half of the year the rise will be already considerable and we should make sure that the Pension Fund has the money. You have to be in contact with the Finance Ministry and other agencies to ensure that nothing misfires.
Anton Drozdov: Everything is in the budget items. It envisages all the necessary indexations. The allocations were made on the basis of the implementation performance that was expected at that time. Naturally, we have allowed a safety margin. I think we will cope with these tasks.
As for the work to improve the pension laws, we are responsible for the actuarial calculations, the tables that are currently under consideration. These are our calculations to 2050. We have considerable experience and the basis for assessing pension commitments. We are making various models and we are in contact with the Ministry of Health and Social Development and with the Ministry of Economic Development. We will step up cooperation with the Finance Ministry. I talked with Alexei Kudrin just today. I listened to his remarks.
Vladimir Putin: We will make all these checks in short order. The decisions will be taken. I repeat: all these decisions should be implemented next year. I assume that the increase in the second half of the year may be even greater than we are planning. We have not yet named the final figures, but the Pension Fund must be
