The conception for reforming the pension system, designed by a working group consisting of representatives of a number of ministries and experts, envisions, among others, the elimination of the discrepancies between personal gains and pensions and the difference in the sizes of pensions. Executive director of the Independent Analytical Center “Expert-Grup” Adrian Lupusor, who forms part of the working group, has told Radio Free Europe that the goal of the reform is to increase pensions, and, if the Government follows this path, the reform will most probably fail, IPN reports.

According to the expert, the objective is to ensure equity by establishing a close connection between the insured income and the size of the pension. Amid the social dissatisfaction with the current Government, the pension reform should take place in two stages. They should start with more popular measures so as to later do more painful reforms. Among the measures that will be supported by the population are to optimize the privileged pensions paid to some of the public functionaries and judges and to reform the indexation system.

“We should have indexation two times a year, depending on the consumer price index. Another measure is to valorize the incomes, which is to change the pension calculation formula so that the pensions are calculated taking into account inflation too because the incomes of 10 years ago value less than now,” stated Adrian Lupusor.

Ensuring transparency is another measure. There should be an online platform by which everyone could calculate the pension without going to the public functionary. Less popular measures should be promoted in two-three years, such as equalizing the retirement age.

The conditions for obtaining disability pension, which is the second category of pensions that exert pressure on the budget and where different fraudulent schemes are used, can be made harsher. Also, the retirement conditions for those working in agriculture, who now benefit from concessions, can be equalized as the support for the agricultural sector should be the object of other policies.

The pension system reform will be discussed within the lending program with the IMF, which is expected to be approved in October, as Minister of Finance Octavian Armasu announced. The official specified that the IMF has for now imposed no conditions in this regard.