Chile plans to reform controversial pension program next year

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – The Chilean authorities will ship a long-awaited invoice to reform the nation’s controversial personal pension system to congress subsequent yr, Finance Minister Mario Marcel stated on Tuesday.

Reforming the present system, Pension Fund Directors (AFP), was one of many greatest calls for demonstrators had in the course of the 2019 protests. One of many greatest complaints towards the system is its low-paying pensions.

Leftist President Gabriel Boric proposed eliminating the personal system in favor of a public one in his authorities plan, however Marcel avoided specifics throughout a presentation earlier than deputies. 

The finance minister identified that one of many issues of the present system is the low stage of contributions from employees and corporations in comparison with different nations. When it got here to the reform, he stated that the federal government was going to start out a “social dialogue” to search out governing ideas for a brand new system.

“From there we’re going to work on a reform venture that may attain Congress in the course of the subsequent yr,” Marcel stated.

“We do not need this session course of to transcend a few months, as a result of we’re conscious that there’s a lot of hysteria to lastly see a proposal on the desk.”

Congress has additionally accredited three partial withdrawals of pension financial savings to assist households in the course of the pandemic, and a brand new withdrawal is at present underneath dialogue.

Boric’s authorities, which took energy on March 11, has an advanced agenda stuffed with guarantees of social reforms whereas battling a sputtering financial system after it registered historic development final yr.

(Report by Fabián Andrés Cambero,; Edited by Natalia Ramos and Alistair Bell)