The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) regulated the law that creates minimum pensions in the Private Pension System (Law No. 31670), whose deadline for publication had already expired. As a result, any active affiliate linked to the AFPs —it does not include those already retired— may voluntarily benefit from a Target Minimum Pension (PMO), which will be set by the citizen, but must not be less than the basic consumption basket established by the INEI. This amount may be modified as long as contributions continue.
In addition, the affiliate will be informed if he has a surplus of his minimum retirement balance, which would be made up of the mandatory and voluntary contributions made, as well as the profitability generated by the AFP. If you have it, you can freely dispose of that resourcemove it to your non-social security contribution account of your AFP or withdraw it from the system and issue negotiable guarantees for up to all of these.
Nothing new?
Digna Calle, a congressman from Podemos Peru, warns that “the trap” of the regulation lies in the fact that it is left pending for the SBS to determine the moment in which the affiliate will be able to dispose of his surplus.
For his part, the teacher ESAN Jorge Guillén recalls that the minimum pensions in the AFPs are not going to be mandatory and, therefore, citizens they will still be able to dispose —if they wish— of 95.5% of their funds and invest them elsewhere, and in a context in which millions would go private with the new recognition bonus, they would be playing more in favor of the AFPs.
The AFP will evaluate if you have the minimum retirement balance to access your money under the programmed withdrawal modality. Photo: diffusion
“I don’t think the difference is much, but it will cause transfers from the ONP to the AFP. It seeks to make the private system more attractive. It gives signals to the people of the ONP telling them ‘move’,” he told La República.
One of the articles of the regulation empowers the MEF to expand the scope of savings through fourth and fifth category income tax refunds or any other that has the affiliate as the owner, money that would go to his account in the AFP.
Guillén argues that there is no culture of pension savings in this country and, therefore, people will prefer to have that money instantly rather than pay it for their retirement.
The silence of the government
The lawyer Álvaro Vidal warns that the regulation does not develop the most important issues for its implementation, and delegates its development to the SBS and INEI. On this last point, because it was not coordinated in time and we will have to wait now how to define the consumption basket to determine the PMO amount.
As mentioned above, the regulation was approved after the deadline, and this neglect goes in line with the gestation of the Minimum Pensions Law: Congress enacted it without Pedro Castillo’s administration saying anything about it.
The Republic contacted the SBS to specify how long they will be able to finish completing the regulation, but they said that the MEF is the entity that must clarify the details.
Government seeks to reform the pension system. Photo: diffusion
Thus, from the MEF they told us that the SBS is in charge of the operational part, and that at no time is INEI being delegated for the basic basket.
Economy Commission accelerates its reform plan
Legislator Carlos Anderson (not grouped) questioned Rosangella Barbarán, president of the Economy Commission, for unexpectedly presenting a bill on the reform of the pension system. Also, he rejected the speed with which Sigrid Bazán (JPP and president of the Labor Commission) engineered her proposal.
In his opinion, it is a boycott of the specialized group – chaired by Jorge Montoya (Renovación Popular) – because it does not include the technical arguments demanded by our system dominated by labor informality, and where the current model does not translate into decent pensions for the old age. On May 2, it will support the edges of the project that work in the Montoya commission.
The word
Jorge Guillén, ESAN professor
“MMany people in the end want their 95.5% and invest it. I don’t think it makes much of a difference. It seeks to make the private system more attractive. Signals are given to the people of the ONP telling them to ‘move’”.
Source: Larepublica
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