Komsomolskaya Pravda: “Vladimir Putin: Pensions should total at least 40% of wages and salaries”
Retirement pensions will be indexed starting August 1 if inflation exceeds 6% in January-June.
Russian citizens must be able to receive Russian Pension Fund services either in person or online, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a meeting assessing the Pension Fund's performance in 2010.
The prime minister asked top Pension Fund managers to prioritise service quality.
"People come to social agencies for assistance, but I want to stress that social workers are supposed to provide such assistance," he said. "A third of the country's population assesses the entire state's performance by the quality of your work." (Editor's note: Russia presently has 40 million retirees)
Putin said pensions were raised by 45% last year, and they have already been adjusted for inflation twice in 2011.
"Retirement pensions will be indexed once again starting August 1 if inflation exceeds 6% in January-June," the prime minister said. "Pension increases require substantial expenses. But we must find the money. We cannot allow a situation similar to the 1990s when pensions were delayed for six months."
Average retirement and social pensions now total 8,865 roubles and 5,214 roubles, respectively.
"Pensions must total at least 40% of the average wages and salaries," Putin said. "The current pension
replacement ratio is 38%. Average wages and salaries now total 20,100 roubles. The Economic Development Ministry plans to raise them to 23,400 roubles by the end of the year. Consequently, pensions must grow quicker than wages and salaries."
Putin asked Pension Fund managers to more actively expand online services to the population and switch over to online exchanges with their colleagues. He said this will facilitate a more cost-effective disbursement of budgetary allocations.
Russian Pension Fund Chairman Anton Drozdov told Putin that his agency has not faced any major problems. Many services are available online, and the public actively surfs the Internet to avoid dealing with officials.
Since 2010, the Pension Fund, rather than the Federal Tax Service, has been successfully collecting social insurance contributions, Drozdov said.
"How much will it cost to reduce social insurance taxes by 1%?" Putin asked.
"100 million roubles," Drozdov replied.
Putin's interest is quite understandable because the government is now studying the possibility of reducing the social insurance taxes that were raised in early 2011.
On the one hand, this negatively affects the business community. And, on the other hand, the Pension Fund faces a major deficit.
Healthcare and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova said the higher social tax's impact on the business community was still unclear.
