Partners of the ruling coalition in Latvia still have not reached an agreement regarding pension indexation, which means it cannot be submitted to the Saeima for review, said Saeima deputy Jānis Dombrava.
Members of the Saeima faction of Attīstībai/Par! (AP) have turned the attention of the Ministry of Finance towards the lack of discussions about pension indexation and the form of support to be organised for residents. Parties of the coalition admit there is no single system in regards to provision of support, said Dombrava.
AP deputies also submitted a proposal for the Law on State Pensions, which would ensure pension indexation is implemented on 1 August.
However, partners of the coalition criticized AP because the submitted proposals, which would have the most direct impact on the state budget, were not coordinated with other parties of the coalition. «We have an agreement – no one can submit proposals that have a big impact on the budget, especially considering now is the pre-election period. The budget could suffer a lot because of that,» said the representative of the National Alliance.
Usually pension indexation takes place 1 September. However, because of the price rise, the coalition decided to do it as early as the start of September, said Saeima deputy Andrejs Judins.
Dombrava does say that it is necessary to reach an agreement in the coalition before the topic of pension indexation can be submitted to the Saeima for review. «We have to consider our budget’s capabilities and whether it is sufficient to afford such a measure,» he said.
With several deputies calling off their signatures previously given to organise an extraordinary meeting of the Saeima, the parliament will not tackle the issue of quicker pension indexation this week.
In their collective submission to the Saeima Praesidium, deputies Juris Pūce (AP), Krišjānis Feldmans (K), Viesturs Liepkalns (AP), Gatis Zamurs (AP), Marija Golubeva (AP) and Mārtiņš Bondars requested the withdrawal of signatures previously submitted to organise an extraordinary meeting of the parliament on 30 June. During this meeting it was planned to discuss amendments to the Law on State Pensions. These amendments suggested performing indexation of state pensions one month earlier than usual – 1 August.