​Finance Minister Marcel Bolosh returned on Thursday to the topic of the second level of pensions, asserting that the contribution increase to 4.75% from January 1, 2024 will not be delayed, after he previously told HotNews.ro that he did not believe that that the budget can support this measure and that a decision must first be made in the Coalition on the topic of the budget deficit.

• “We will not postpone the increase of the contribution to the II level of pensions.
• I wanted to address an important issue directly to end any speculation and bring clarity to the decisions being made at government level. All these conjectures and rumors do us no good.
• The problem of sustainability of the deficit remains open and requires the determination of solutions in the fiscal and budgetary strategy.
• That is why the MF team carefully analyzes the various options that are presented at the level of the ruling coalition and calculates the impact that they can cause. The adopted decisions will be presented by the coalition.
• What I can assure you is that any regulatory act that will have the signature of our institution will transparently follow all stages of development, approval and approval. Marcel Bolosh reported this on Facebook on Thursday.

The clarifications came after Minister Marcel Bolosh previously told HotNews.ro that he does not believe that the budget will be able to support the increase in contributions to the II level of pensions from January 1, 2024.

• “The measure to increase (contribution) to Tier II is in place, but I don’t think the impact of this measure can be borne by the state budget and it is very clear in the PNRR that this percentage of 4.75% is given depending on the fiscal budget strategy. Let’s see the strategy complete the first time. A decision on the budget deficit should be made in the Coalition.” HotNews.ro said this on Thursday, Minister of Finance Marcel Bolosh.

The minister’s statements were made after HotNews.ro asked him for his reaction to the new draft emergency decree delaying for 2 years the increase in the contribution to the second level of pensions from 3.75% to 4.75% with a 25% share of pensions. CAS, only from January 1, 2026.

How the Cholak government boasted of respecting the PNRR by increasing the contribution to the second tier from January 1, 2024

We remind you that on March 16, 2022, the Çolaku government approved an emergency decree that provided for an increase of one percentage point, starting from January 1, 2024, in contributions to private pension funds (level II).

The Ministry of Labor, then headed by Marius Budai (PSD), boasted of achieving a major milestone in the PNRR by increasing this contribution.

• “The reform of the pension system, proposed in the National Recovery and Stability Plan, is aimed at developing legislation aimed at ensuring the medium- and long-term stability and predictability of the state pension system, respectively, the stability of the second level of pensions.
• Through the normative act adopted today, compliance with the calendar established by the PNRR (component C8, R6, stage 213) is ensured, while contributions to the II level of pensions comply with the provisions of the Fiscal Budgetary Strategy.”, This is stated in the press release of the Ministry of Labor from this date.

Contributions to private pension funds are part of the social insurance contributions belonging to the state pension system and are deducted from the gross monthly income, which is the basis for calculating social insurance contributions.

Currently, 3.75% of the 25% share of CAS is transferred to the accounts of more than 8.1 million Romanians, to the II level of pension insurance.