Chilean President, Gabriel Boric, insisted this Tuesday on advancing in the processing of the pension reformone of the main axes of its pending dispatch program for seven months due to lack of agreementsand urged Parliament to “improve the project” that his Government presented.
“Here there are no ideological barriers, it is about having a dignified old age. We are going to insist and I hope we do not have any more setbacks with that in Congress,” said the president during the signing of the bill that extraordinarily expands a winter bonus for retirees.
“This bonus is a support, but it is not a definitive solution; the definitive solution is the improvement of workers’ pensions, of those who have worked all their lives, but do not have enough to live on. Older people can’t keep waiting“Added the former student leader.
The Chilean government proposes to create a mixed system, raising contributions to 16% by the employer and the end of the controversial private pension administrators (AFPs), created during the military dictatorship (1973-1990).
The improvement of pensions was one of the central themes of Boric’s second public account before Parliament, held last week and in which he took stock of his first 15 months in government.
The president insisted that it is a “moral imperative” and warned that “Chilean society will not tolerate a new failure” in the processing of this reform that he described as “national urgency.”
“We have the duty to improve the pensions of Chileans today, not tomorrow or in 10 more years,” said the president, who therefore urged the opposition to dialogue and move forward “with speed, responsibility and commitment.”
Along with the tax The pension reform is one of Boric’s star promises and one of the great demands of the citizenry for more than a decade. It was also one of the most shouted demands during the 2019 social outbreak, the most important wave of protests since the end of the dictatorship.
The current pension system implanted during the Pinochet regime, It is based on individual capitalization thanks to the monthly contribution of 10% of the employees’ salary to a personal account available only when they reach retirement and supervised by the AFPs, which invest these savings in the markets and obtain million-dollar benefits, close to 8% of GDP.
EFE
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