EconMin Nasui: Gov't special pension spending has increased in Romania by 60% in last five years

Government spending on all special pensions in Romania increased by 60% between 2016 and 2020, as low-wage labour taxation is the highest in the entire European Union (EU), Economy Minister Claudiu Nasui he wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. "How come there is always money for some? Repealing all special pensions must be a priority for any party that wants the best for Romania. Between 2016 and 2020, spending on all pensions awarded under special laws increased by 60%. Quite a sizeable percentage! Pensions reach exorbitant levels, enviable even for the citizens of the richest countries in the world: 78,000 lei per month, or 16,000 euros per month (...) At the same time, labour taxation on low wages in Romania is the highest in the whole of the European Union, and it is no coincidence that we also have the highest working poverty rate, that is those who, although they have a job and work, are still poor. All that is not inevitable. We can find money to reduce labour taxation on the lowest wages and lift millions of Romanians out of poverty. We ran on this central idea in the election, and it is found in the government agenda voted in Parliament," wrote Nasui. He mentions that he has no problem with those large pensions that people who have saved money during their lives receive, but he cannot agree with the special pension coming "from the money that the government takes from us, that is from our tax money." "I have no problem with large pensions. If someone reaches that amount because he has saved money all his life, invested in pension funds that have given him returns and after an age he decides to live on that money. Congratulations to him. It would be a success story that we should praise, but this is not a success story. The pension in question comes from the money that the government takes from us, that is, from our tax money. The only story to be told there is that of some privileges granted by the government to the most politically influential people," says Nasui. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Badea, editor: Oana Tilica; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)