Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves said he is committed to not kicking the can further down the road when it comes to pension reform here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Minister Gonsalves while speaking on WEFM’s Issue At Hand program said that pension reform is being discusses throughout the region and that the structure of SVG’s pension system is unsustainable in its current state.
“The structure that we have, the structure of the Government pension and the NIS pension, disconnected from one another is perverse economically. Because you’re reaching a situation where there will be some people who will make more money retired than they made while they were working, who can make up to 120% of their salary in retirement between their Government and their NIS pension, which, on its face, is unsustainable,” Gonsalves said.
Minister Gonsalves said the conversation around pension is one that first started years ago, but due to factors such as the economic crisis and natural disasters, it had been put off.
However the Finance Minister said he is committed to not ‘kicking the can further down the road’ when it comes to pension reform.
“We keep kicking the can down the road and I am committed to not kick this can any further down the road. We have to define where pension reform can take place. Can it take place on changing the age of retirement? Can it be altered in the way in which the government and NIS pensions are connected, interact, so that between the two of them you can’t get more than a certain amount of money. Can it be altered based on how you calculate the wage by which you are going to have your pension; should it be the value of your last year, the average of three years, the average of your last five years working?” the Finance Minister said.
Minister Gonsalves said numerous factors that should be taken into consideration when discussing the topic of pension reform, but stressed that it is a discussion that must be had.
