Can the Kosovo Trust's 10 per cent attract the diaspora?

The withdrawal of 10 per cent of the means from the citizens' account at the Kosovo Pension Savings Fund, as well as the withdrawal of 100m euros from the Kosovo Privatisation Agency on behalf of economic recovery, is presented in the Economic Recovery Bill. This bill has been adopted in the first-read pane. The second reading also requires approval.

Citizens have expressed interest in whether they can withdraw the money raised in the Trust from those accounts that are not active.

Faton Morina, a citizen whose brother works in Germany from the past year, but who has collected vehicles in the Trust at the time he worked in Kosovo has expressed interest in attracting some of his brother's tools, as he himself is not a contributor.

About 20 years later, my brother and my wife worked with my wife in regular letters. Now he's gone to Germany, we don't know if we can withdraw a little money from his contributions. In the Trust, they have said they should expect the law to be passed on the table to be exposed to all details. I'm out of work that a time of”, he said.

Does Demi, spokesperson at the Kosovo Pension Savings Fund, told news.net that any person who has contributions can withdraw them on the basis of legislation to be adopted.

The 10% withdrawal issue, according to the draft passed in the Assembly in the first reading, does not link with being or not active as a contributor. Any person who has saved means in the Trust will be able to apply, if legal changes go into effect, for attracting 10%.

Since the application is supposed to be online, so via the internet, it does not present any problems to apply even contributors that cannot be at the moment of application in Kosovo”, Demi said.

But there is a small problem in all of this for those citizens who have no open bank accounts in Kosovo.

“is enough for the same to have a personal number of Kosovo and an active account at a bank, yes, in Kosovo, and without a problem withdraw”, Demi added further.

In the Trust, they don't figure out what the monetary value of the persons whose account is currently inactive.

We did not extract the “into monetary value, but while non-resistant accounts are about 539 thousand active accounts are about 350 thousand. The difference is to be inactive accounts in September 2020. These numbers vary by” every month, Demi added away.

Citizens who have given up Kosovo's citizenship have repeatedly sought to receive their savings in the Trust. But this institution is not legally regulated, so with the law's approval it can only attract 10 percent of the amount if they have bank accounts in Kosovo.

By October 12th 2020, the Trust had under management 2, 093, 590, 648 euros.

According to Trust data, half of the contributors or over 312 thousand people have less than a thousand euros saved.

About 27% of contributions to taxpayers, or close to 167 thousand people, could attract an average of 9 euros.

10% of remittances (65,756 people) could attract an average of 37 euros.

The 7% of the taxpayers (approximately 51 thousand people) could draw an average of over a thousand euros in savings.

The KKP has been founded as the sole institution for managing and investing the mandatory pension contributions of Kosovo employees, as well as for managing individual retirement savings accounts to retire. The KKP was founded with Law in December 2001 as a non-profit institution.

The International Monetary Fund (FMN) has not supported the Kosovo Government's initiative to withdraw 10 per cent of the means from the Pension Savings Fund, but argues the focus of part of the Kosovo Privatisation Agency's (AKP) means of easing and recovery measures in the 2021 budget.

Thus reportedly in a closing statement of the staff of the International Monetary Fund, which has held a virtual visit to Kosovo from 23 September to 7 October.

In the IMF statement, “proposed withdrawal of the 10 per cent pension savings from the Kosovo Pension Savings Trust (TKPK) reduces future pensions and limits the size of the internal capital market, which has been the essential source of budget financing”.