UPDATE: Russian Deputy PM demands Fin Min reject pension reform

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MOSCOW, Apr 29 (PRIME) -- The Russian government is not discussing any new pension schemes, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said on Friday and demanded the Finance Ministry reject information that such steps are prepared.

Earlier this week, business daily Kommersant reported that the Finance Ministry and the central bank have completed a draft law making pension savings a quasi-private property but demanding that a 22% payroll tax be entirely spent on the current retirees.

Another daily, Vedomosti, reported that the Finance Ministry wants the retirement age raised, pensions to working people banned, and several other tax and inflation adjustment austerity reforms made.

Golodets said: “We have no documents in the government, nobody is discussing them even privately… Colleagues, we do not have these materials in the government, what the press is discussing these days – no such documents,” Golodets said.

Svetlana Nikitina, aide to the finance minister, told reporters that the ministry will not publicly discuss the pension reform until the government defines its position on the issue. “It would be wrong to speculate on the issue or to give incomplete or inaccurate information,” she said.

“The issue of the pension reform is under development now. It would be wrong for us to discuss proposals that have not been worked out or thoroughly discussed. We will announce all proposals that are within the Finance Ministry’s responsibility as soon as the government forms its position on the pension reform,” Nikitina said.

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