Parliament gave two readings to a bill to amend the methods of indexing the pensions and other social benefits so as to increase the indexation coefficient. Under the bill, the indexation of pensions two times a year – on April 1 and on October 1 – is kept, but is based on a new mechanism for applying this, starting with April 1 this year, IPN reports.

Under the bill, in April 2021, the pension indexation coefficient will represent the average annual rise in the consumer price index for the last three years (2018, 2019, 2020), while in October – the inflation rate in the first half of the given year. The indexation coefficient will be set by the Government.

The legislative proposal was submitted by the Socialist MPs. They said the pensions and other types of social welfare on April 1 will be indexed by 3.89%, while on October 1 by 3.2%.

Under the current mechanism, the indexation coefficient on April 1 represents the inflation rate for the second half of the previous year. Statistics show there was a deflation of 0.68% in the second half of 2020 and it won’t be thus possible to index pensions in April based on this mechanism.