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More Than 160,000 People Sign Petition Against Changes to 3rd Pillar
Thursday 28 Octtber 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, October 28 (TASR) - More than 160,000 people have already signed a petition against planned changes to the supplementary pension saving scheme (the third pillar of the pension system).
The petition committee began collecting signatures on October 4, hoping to garner at least 100,000 by the end of the month and submit them to Parliament, thereby asking MPs not to approve the amendment. The proposal has already been passed to its second reading in the House.
According to the proposal, the contributions sent by employees and employers to supplementary pension-fund management companies would henceforth be taxable. "With such an amendment that practically does away with any motivation to participate in the third pillar, Slovakia would become the black sheep of the developed world, in which governments support all forms of voluntary pension savings by all means," stressed chairman of the Association of Supplementary Pension-fund Management Companies (ADDS) Milos Krssak.
According to Finance Minister Ivan Miklos, scrapping the current levy exemption for supplementary pension savers will remove unjustified privileges that deform the market (as not every employee has the opportunity to build up their pension savings with money that isn't taxed at source).
ADDS argues that if the third pillar is to be a standard part of commercial pension saving, all regulation duties should be removed from legislation.
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