Monitor: Tomas: Gov't Doesn't Plan Any Further Changes to 2nd Pension Pillar

(TA3, 'V politike', April 28) The Government is not preparing any changes that would deprive the people of their savings in the second pension pillar and doesn't plan any further cuts to contributions they pay to this type of savings, Labour, Social Affairs and Family Minister Erik Tomas (Voice-SD) said on TA3's discussion programme 'V politike' (In Politics) on Sunday. Tomas said this in response to a claim by his opposite number, SaS chair Branislav Groehling, according to whom the Government is planning to take more money away from the second pillar. "There's no legislation in the pipes to that effect, not even to cut levies to the second pillar," said Tomas. He added that if the state wanted to borrow these savings for the construction of highways, it would have to be with reasonable yields. Tomas finds contemplations about such a scenario, presented by Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD), legitimate and claimed that even the former government of Igor Matovic (then OLaNO) had entertained using the 2nd pillar savings to construct rental housing. Aside from the effort to cover Government expenditure with the people's lifelong savings, Groehling also criticised Tomas over the decision to cut 2nd pillar levies to 4 percent. "You could have increased the levies, yet you slashed them even more," he added. In response, Tomas stated that similar changes to the 2nd pillar had been conducted also by the former government that included SaS party, which had suspended the planned increase to the 2nd pillar levies. The minister said that out of countries to the west of Slovakia, only Sweden has 2nd pension pillar, whereas several countries have scrapped it altogether. However, Tomas is aware that the 2nd pillar is anchored in the Constitution and frequent changes to it don't contribute towards its stability. Because of this, he would like to arrive at an agreement across the political spectrum on its future settings, so as to prevent future interventions. mf