The national budget doesn’t need to be rebalanced to cover the government subsidies for the minimum wage and pension increase because funds have already been allocated for this, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi told a news conference Wednesday, news agency MIA informs.

Minister Bytyqi said the state’s pension fund would finance the retirement checks. Talks are expected to start by the end of the week with all stakeholders in the pension system so that they reach a solution acceptable to everyone, he said.

Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Fatmir Bytyqi

He added that the talks would determine “whether the methodology should change or if one-time assistance should be given to the most vulnerable” retirees.

“What I can safely say is that everyone involved in the dialogue will be happy with the outcome,” Bytyqi pointed out. Regarding some expert opinions that the announced increase in pensions would need to be financed from the budget, the deputy PM said the national pension fund had had a significant increase in revenues over the last year.

“I respect the opinions of the expert community, but I think their views should be consistent. The expert community has probably existed for the past 15 years, as well, and allowed the pension fund to be in this predicament. “If they take a good look at the fund’s financial statements, they will see that last year, although it was a year amid a pandemic and economic crisis, its revenues were significantly higher due to the movement of the economy itself and the movement of wages.

“Suggesting that [the raises] would increase the need to intervene from the Budget… I think they probably haven’t read the pension fund data well enough,” Bytyqi said.

Commenting on some employers’ complaints that they weren’t eligible for the state subsidies to cover the minimum wage increase because they were already using state subsidies to cover their payrolls, Bytyqi said this decision was justified so that state assistance wouldn’t go to the same companies for the same purpose.