After members of the BiH Fiscal Council, with a dissenting opinion of the BiH Chairman of Council of Ministers Vjekoslav Bevanda, sent an additional letter of intent to the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, this financial institution would have to consider it at its session on 6 May.
This was confirmed for “Dnevni Avaz” by the residential representative of the IMF in BIH Ruben Atoyan, saying that the adoption of a new unified law on favorable retirement allowed for them to recommend to the Executive Board of the IMF to consider a second review of the Stand-By Agreement.
“Waiting for the Executive Board of the IMF for a positive evaluation of this program, a concluding review would open the possibility for the allocation of our next tranche of financial support in the amount of around 78 million KM’’, said Atoyan.
He said that representatives of the IMF in the last few months worked constructively with the FBiH government and representatives of the World Bank on a new law on favorable retirement.
“We support the law adopted because it lends a solid framework that is equitable and financially sustainable. It also produces better instruments of protection for financial sustainability on the pension fund in FBIH, and more importantly for the old-age pension. Thus, the new law represents a large improvement in relation to the previous system’’, said Atoyan.
He said that there is a critical need to ensure the implementation of this law, and said that in this regard the IMF will work closely with the FBiH.
“Our opinion is that the adoption of this law represents a responsible act and we commend the government for finding the political will to implement this difficult reform. Like BIH, and many other countries in Europe, they are now implementing difficult pension reforms and creating systems that are equitable and financially sustainable. These are not simple reforms’’, said Atoyan.
He said that these reforms, among other things, include harmonization of retirement age with increasing age, restricting access to early retirement schemes and supporting longer working lives.
He added that even if this law may look like a very difficult step from the point of view of local politicians, ‘’ from one wider regional perspective, this is only a modest first step towards establishing fiscal sustainability of the pension system in the FBiH”.
