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Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has announced he is ready to resign if there is no pension reform that foresees an increase in pension benefits from October 1 while the retirement age remains unchanged, according to TV Channel 112 Ukraine.
"I guarantee the pension reform with pensions to be increased from October 1. I'm ready to resign if I fail to do that. But I will do that," Groysman told 112 Ukraine on Friday evening.
He also stressed that the pension reform would repeal taxation of pension benefits but would introduce the so-called indexing when pensions will be changed in correlation with inflation.
Read alsoUkraine's social minister discloses who gets highest pensionAs UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's government plans to raise pensions from October 1 as part of the pension reform. This will concern 5.6 million Ukrainians. The government also pledged to cancel any tax on benefits paid to working pensioners.
The government version of the pension reform does not provide for raising the retirement age, at the same time offering other tools for developing a fair and deficit-free pension system.
According to the International Monetary Fund's statement after an IMF Executive Board meeting on Ukraine, the country cannot delay any longer a comprehensive pension reform, including raising the effective retirement age.