Prime Minister Pavel Filip signed a decision to approve the conception for reforming the pensions system, which is a complex modification process that will lay emphasis on social equity, IPN reports.

Prime Minister Pavel Filip had a series of consultations with members of the working group for working out the pension system reform. This includes representatives of the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family, the National Social Insurance House, the employers, trade unions, development partners, the NGO sector and experts in the field.

The Premier asked that the Ministry of Labor should continue the consultations, based on the given conception, and should work out the legislation needed for the reform, together with the social and development partners and specialists in the field, so that this took effect on January 1, 2017.

The reform conception envisions, among others, the reduction in the pension system inequities and adjustment to the social insurance principles, creation of an attractive pension system, with an increased level of benefits, ensuring of transparent governance with consolidated capacities for administering the pension system.

The size of pension for all the citizens, regardless of their status, must match the paid contributions. The working group said it’s not equitable for the pension of some categories to represent 75% of the average salary, while of most of the pensioners only 26%.

It is planned to increase pensions not only by annual indexation, but also by valorizing the ensured income and by recalculating the pensions and to simultaneously institute the basic pension.

All these desiderata can be achieved by ensuring a sustainable pension system, first of all financially. Thus, conditions are to be created for increasing the number of taxpayers and extending the taxation basis, including by combating the illegal payment of salaries.

According to statistics, in Moldova there are over 679,000 pensioners.