Hrant Bagratyan, ex-Prime Minister of Armenia, parliamentarian from the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC), has expressed his opinion on the compulsory accumulative pension system on his Facebook page.
Bagratyan says that the ANC found it necessary to analyze and find the shortcomings of the Armenian version of the compulsory accumulative pension system. It has been found out that the Armenian version has nothing to do with the Russian, Estonian or Chilean one. "I am glad to say that due to the relevant efforts the society has understood what ugly thing the Government has imposed on it. I think the Constitutional Court will declare this "reform" invalid. This is an obvious absurdity! But there is a chance to be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. According to the law, an 18-year-old citizen deposits his/her money for 45 years. This is a world record. I delved into the Internet yesterday and saw that there is no deposit for more than 30 years", Bagratyan says.
To recall, the voluntary accumulative pension system was introduced in Armenia on 1 Jan 2011. The system has become compulsory on 1 Jan 2014. According to the law, the minimal pension in the country will be equal to the minimum wage, while the basic pension will total 150% of the minimum wage. The compulsory accumulative pension system will cover the citizens born after Jan 1 1974 (the citizens below 40). Starting Jan 1 2014, 5% of their salaries will be transferred to their personal accumulative accounts. The government will transfer a similar amount (but no more than 25,000 drams).