Azerbaijan adopts amendments to pension legislation

Presenting the amendments, Khadi Rajabli, chairman of parliament's social policy committee, said that they included provisions on raising the pension age, the quantity of children for getting status of the mother with many children, and insurance pension period and pension indexation.

“Use of the amendments will allow cutting and then refusal from State Budget subsidies to budget of the State Social Protection Fund (DSMF),” Rajabli said.

Some MPs were against flatly the amendments.

MP Panah Huseynov called them “anti-social revolution”, while MP Aynur Guliyeva voiced concern about employment of graduates of higher educational institutions because of pension age raising. MP Igbal Agazadeh was displeased with decline from compulsory annual indexation of pension and switching to indexation at discretion of authorized governmental agency, and in fact pension age conformity to average life duration. MP Musa Guliyev on the contrary pointed out that in the USSR times only 7 percent of the population reached pension age at 60 years and in Azerbaijan the figure now makes 15 percent.

MP Ikram Israfili noted that no one voter will endorse this Law.

First vice speaker asked a question: would the government have offered such unpopular law if there had not such a necessity?

DSMF chair Salim Muslimov, in his turn, said that if the main point was about profit of AZN 7-8 million, then there would be no need for the amendments.

“In 2009 alone 168,000 persons retired and it was demanded up to AZN 49 million for raising pensions. Today there is a pensioner per social insurance fee payer,” Muslimov said.

As a result, only two MPs voted against the amendment document.

After President Ilham Aliyev approved the amendments, pension age of males (now makes 62 years) and females (57 years now) will be increased for males to 63, and for females to 60 age.

The mother with at least five children will be considered as having many children.

At the same time pension capital was estimated in AZN 170 for each year of labour period until 1 January 2006.

/Fineko/abc.az/