The state-run Information Resource Center “Registru” this year has issued 136,000 identity cards and 270,000 travel passports, an increase compared with the first half of 2009, Info-Prim Neo reports. The information was made public in a news conference, where the Information Resource Center “Registru” presented the performance report for the first half of the year. According to the report, 1,500 identity cards have been issued to residents of the Transnistrian region in the period free of charge. 17,000 persons who turned 16 and applied for the card for the first time have been issued with gratis identity cards. 80% of the elderly persons will start to receive their pensions at home by October 1. A sum of 9 million lei a year is needed to cover the related costs. A relevant bill will be submitted to the Government for approval. Currently, only one third of the pensioners receive their pensions at home, under the state social insurance budget law. Most of them are invalids. In the same news conference, Minister of Information and Communication Development Alexandru Oleinic said the price of the biometric passports will not exceed €40, as in many European states. The price of the license plates will be decreased now that the production of these plates was entrusted to “Registru”.