Minister of European Investment and Projects Marcel Bolos said on Tuesday that two options for the reform of special pensions in Romania are currently being worked on, a milestone that is included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).
Bolos said, at the Palace of Parliament, that the payment request number 3 of the PNRR is partially suspended, with the main cause being that of the special pensions milestone, and the deadline for meeting this milestone is six months of the official communication of the European Commission's letter on the status of this request.
"The problem that has now opened up regarding special pensions does not concern military pensions. The subject is closed. Now we are discussing the issue of fairness in the taxation of magistrates' pensions and we must find solutions to this issue within six months. (...) Two options are in the works. The option in which a certain percentage of income taxation will be taxed above a certain threshold of pensions, but such measure is part of the package of measures for the tax reform, because we also have a milestone in terms of tax reform. This threshold is to be discussed according to the simulations at the Ministry of Finance, because equity concerns how much a magistrate takes out compared with the other beneficiaries of the state pension system. (...) The second option is the one that World Bank experts have developed regarding the percentage that is received in the form of income pension at the time of retirement. Now it is 85% of this gross income and the contribution period taken into account is 5 years. In this context, we are talking about a percentage and an adjusted contribution period, but even here we have to finalise the simulations together with the representatives of the European Commission," said Bolos.
Bolos said that if Romania fails to solve this problem of equity of special pensions, it risks losing EUR 231 million euros from PNRR.
Comentează