MFSS will make a statement on the initiative to increase the minimum pension when they get acquainted with the bill

The Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare will make a statement on the initiative to increase the minimum pension from January 1 next year when it gets acquainted in detail with the proposal to amend the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance submitted to the parliamentary procedure by the "Peace is our Nation" group of deputies.

This parliamentary group proposed that the amount of the minimum pension be increased from 147 to 200 euros, that is, by 36 percent. If the proposal gets a majority in the parliament, it will be necessary to provide an additional 16,2 million euros in the budget annually.

"When we get to know that proposal in more detail, we will make a final statement, as well as in the conversation with our partners from the Assembly. We point out that it is important that for all proposed measures on the expenditure side of the state budget, there should also be measures on the revenue side, for the sake of a neutral fiscal effect", the ministry told "Vijesta".

The department headed by Minister Milojko Spajić said that in cooperation with the PIO Fund, and with the support of the World Bank (WB), they are entering into a pension reform that should significantly contribute to the budgets of pensioners, especially those with the lowest incomes.

"The Ministry is already working to improve the status of pensioners, along with the "Europe Now" reform program, which will provide a better standard of living in Montenegro with the financial stability of the state. For this reason, we believe that "Europe now", that is, the budget proposal for 2022 with accompanying laws, will be adopted in the Parliament. According to the bill on the budget for the next year for the financing of the pension and disability insurance system, about 462 million is provided for the PIO Fund, which is about eight million more than this year. This means that in January pensions will be increased based on regular adjustment to inflation and wage growth, and the goal is to have an extraordinary increase from July due to the upcoming system reform," the ministry said, adding that pensions will be adjusted again in January 2023.

The Ministry said that in the period of 13 months they expect three increases in pensions, which will be significant in total.

"After the economic decline of 15,3 percent in 2020, the priority was to preserve the existing pensions and not to freeze them, i.e. not to deny pensioners the adjustment according to the law, which the former government did even when the state's economy was in an incomparably better state than which was last year. For example, after the crisis of 2012 and a drop in economic activity of 2,7 percent, pensions were frozen immediately in 2013," said the department.

Democrat MP Danilo Šaranović previously announced that 17.000 pensioners have a pension of 140 euros.

"Taking into account the current number of beneficiaries of the lowest pension (about 16.800) and beneficiaries who receive a pension in the range from the valid lowest to the one provided for by this law (about 21.000), on a monthly basis it is necessary to set aside an additional 1,35 million euros, which makes an increase of about 3,75% compared to the valid appropriations for the payment of rights from pension and disability insurance. For the implementation of this law, it is necessary to provide these additional funds in the budget for 2022", it was stated in the explanation of the proposal of the parliamentary group "Peace is our nation", which consists of nine Democrats and Demos MP Miodrag Lekić.

The Board of Directors of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund made a decision to grant one-time assistance to pensioners in Montenegro, which will be paid in December with the regular pension for November 2021. It is a joint initiative of the Fund and the Ministry of Finance. For that purpose, as announced, around 3,1 million euros have been set aside.

This is the third one-time assistance for pensioners. The previous two this year were part of the Government's two packages of measures to help citizens and the economy in combating the economic consequences of the pandemic.