PRESS: Russia can replenish VEB capital with pension savings

MOSCOW, Apr 8 (PRIME) -- The supervisory board of Russia’s state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) has approved the idea of using 150 billion rubles of pension savings frozen in 2016 by the government to replenish its capital, business daily Vedomosti reported Friday, citing sources in the government.

The government froze the accumulative part of pension savings for 2014 and 2015, and used 6% of citizens’ payments for the accumulative part to pay pensions of the current retirees and spared money for the budget. In December 2015, the measure was prolonged for 2016 in order to gain 342.2 billion rubles for the budget.

A high-ranking government source told Vedomosti that President Vladimir Putin allowed VEB to take money from the pension reserves. “Different options would require amendments to the budget law but there is not enough time, and the fastest thing is to take money from the presidential reserve,” an official said.

New CEO of VEB Sergei Gorkov said earlier that 150 billion rubles of state aid would be enough for the bank for the entire 2016.

(67.7960 rubles – U.S. $1)

End