"A basic part raise was scheduled for October 1, but flat social tax revenues have brought extra money to the federal purse. So we can afford the raise two months ahead," said Mr. Batanov.
A total 38.2 millions are entitled to the pension raise-disabled persons and war veterans among them. War veterans' monthly incomes will increase by 265 to 270 rubles, on the average.
"Many of those people are receiving two pensions each-disability and for work records. Such pensions will amount to a summary 4,500 rubles. That is the biggest pension possible now. Pensioners resident in Arctic and subarctic areas are entitled to the same."
The minimum pension will now exceed a thousand rubles for a first-ever time in Russia. "A threshold pension will be at a national average 1,003 rubles, and a ceiling 2,384, with an average 2,195," the Pension Fund head went on.
Not all pensioners will find it a sizeable raise, he acknowledged. "We can only regret that pensions are raised on federal standards. People in the cheaper areas will notice the money, but those in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other megalopolises, with their high prices, will see it as a token sum."
Practically annulling the pension raise is a simultaneous raise of rents and municipal utilities fees. "Certain market dealers who are serving pensioners-in particular, housing offices-are timing their raises with pension rises. We think it immoral, and are worried," pointed out Batanov.
As he emphasized, theearly pension raise is not tied in with a recently passed bill on monetary grants replacing pensioners' privileges in kind. "The federal President has approved the following pattern: whenever we have extra money, and are not channeling it to the Pension Fund reserve, we are to spend it on a pension rise. The arrangement has nothing to do with the privilege reform," explained the fund head.
Russia has regular pension rises twice a year. The next has been scheduled for April 1, 2005. "The insurance and basic pension parts will both be raised, as usually. The actual increase will depend on inflation rates and federal revenues. Employers are now less reluctant than they were to declare the actual amount of personnel wages, so Pension Fund revenues are growing all the quicker."
