“We live in times that we cannot like: we are told of state capture, of the COVID anguish or of war and refugees. There are no times of joy in sight and I think it all depends on the team managing the crises. At the moment, the government does not cope with the situation because the people are economically demolished, are impoverished and this makes them take sides with those who are on the other side in the hybrid warfare. For now, the opponents are doing better,” said Lilia Burakovski, moderator of the talk show “Freedom Territory”, who discussed mainly social policy topics in her recent show with Ina Coşeru, chairwoman of the parliamentary commission for foreign policy and European integration, and Rodica Grama, deputy chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Wellbeing (CUB), IPN reports.
Asked by the journalist to comment on the government’s “strange reasoning” that the minimum pension exceeds the subsistence level, the CUB representative said that her party’s request to the authorities is to return to the situation of 2022, when pensions weren’t indexed by 30%, as the law requires, but by a much lower percentage.
“If we look at the legislation, the subsistence level must be set by an independent commission. In reality, the subsistence level is set by the Ministry depending on the capacity of the state to pay a certain amount, but not on the true costs of daily living. And someone decided that the amount of 2,400 lei a month is enough to survive in Moldova,” said Rodica Grama. She noted that pensions are increased by 300-500 lei, but this doesn’t change the quality of life and the subsistence level should be therefore anchored much better in the realities.
As for the formation of the pension budget, the interlocutors said that the budget has now a gap of 6 billion lei. “We need to secure revenues, (reduce) the shadow economy. If all (economic agents) honor their obligations, we will gather these 6 billion lei that is necessary to pay and increase pensions,” stated Ina Coşeru. “From another angle, the problem is not that a particular number of senior officials have high salaries. Otherwise, who would want to assume responsibility and the burden of governing, of managing the economy and other areas. Even if there are 100 people with high salaries and we halve these salaries, what would the saved amount mean for 700,000 pensioners?”
On the other hand, the government is not bothered much that a pensioner is now supported by less than one employee, which leads to large discrepancies. “A demographic hole is forming in Moldova, which the authorities do not take into account and they do nothing in this regard. There is a shortage of labor force. The payment of contributions into the social fund continues to be avoided...” The people are not honest in the relations with the state. If undeclared payments continue, the allocations could be raised to 50%, but this would not change the situation”. In this connection, the CUB deputy chairwoman cited EU data showing that the shadow economy in the Union is maintained at 16.2%, while in Moldova it amounts to 40%.
The participants proposed reviewing the concept of calculating pensions for teachers, doctors, kindergarten workers, librarians and other budget-funded categories of vital importance for the nation, who, after retiring, have pensions below the subsistence level.
