Ukraine to use additional customs revenue to compensate pensioners for previous years' indexation

The compensation will be paid only to those pensioners whose retirement fees will be the lowest after a new phase of indexation scheduled for March 1.

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Ukraine's government will use additional customs revenue to compensate pensioners for indexation they did not receive in 2015-2016.

"Today we've found an opportunity to index retirement benefits for 2015-2016, first of all, to those pensioners who have the lowest level of pension, that is the minimum one and below the minimum. According to approximate estimates, it will be UAH 2,410 (US$89 per capita)," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said at a meeting at the Pension Fund on February 25, 2019, according to the Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske.

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Poroshenko says the compensation will be paid only to those pensioners whose retirement fees will be the lowest after a new phase of indexation scheduled for March 1.

"There will be those who will receive UAH 800 ($30), UAH 900 ($33) and UAH 1,000 ($37) that don't need to be compensated. But those who get UAH 100 ($3.70) and UAH 200 ($7.41) will get the compensation during March-April," he added.

At the same time, Ukrainian Social Policy Minister Andriy Reva says that UAH 2,410 is the amount that pensioners had not received as there was no indexation in 2014-2015.

As UNIAN reported, Poroshenko on November 23, 2018, signed a bill into law to simplify the procedure for customs clearance of cars, in particular, with foreign registration, as well as a bill that increases responsibility for violating car customs clearance rules. According to the laws, all revenue that the state will receive from customs clearance of cars with European registration plates, which were brought into Ukraine's customs territory without customs clearance as transit vehicles, shall be channeled into the Pension Fund.

As of February 19, Ukrainians cleared 124,000 cars with European registration, having paid UAH 7.67 billion ($284.1 million) to the national budget.

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, earlier registered a bill to extend the grace period for clearance of cars with foreign registration plates until May 23, 2019. During the grace period, the customs clearance fee is half the usual rate.

Indexation is a method to adjust income payments by means of a consumer price index.

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