Bulgarian Minister Unsure about Nationalization of Pension Funds

Bulgaria's Economy Minister Traicho Traikov is not sure about the idea for the nationalization of private pension funds. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Economy Minister Traicho Traikov is skeptic about the nationalization of the professional private retirement funds.

In an interview for the Bulgarian National Television on Tuesday, Traikov expressed doubt about proposal for transferring of the money from private funds to the National Insurance Institute (NOI).

"I am not convinced. When money is insufficient at one place, they will still be insufficient when they transfer to another place," he said.

The minister pointed out that the work of the funds is transparent. In his words, most of them announce data from their work every six, three months or even daily.

"I am not convinced that we should sacrifice the transparency of private funds in order to decrease the expenses for the management of the money," Traikov said.

He has explained that the goal of the transfer was to enable a cheaper management of the money. However, in his words, whether it would be cheaper has not been proven yet and more discussions in the parliament were needed.

The economy minister has stated he supported the maintenance of low taxes. According to him, this is one of the few competitive advantages of Bulgaria, along with the macroeconomic stability.

Traikov also expressed support for the so-called "luxury tax." He said that charging an "unproductive property" was not such an "unfair measure."

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