Within two weeks the government with a bill to withdraw Trust money

Kosovo's government is preparing a bill that, in addition to implementing Kosovo's Economic Recovery Pack, will enable taxpayers to withdraw a lot of means from their account at the Kosovo Pension Savings Fund, Deputy Finance Minister Agim Krasniqi tells Radio Free Europe.

Deputy Finance Minister Krasniqi says this bill will be available within the next week and could be sent to the Kosovo Assembly for approval.

The “under the Regeneration Pack, including the means of the Pension Trust, is preparing a law that will be a horizontal law, so that not all laws are affected, but a law that will be in force by the end of 2021, to overcome this pandemic situation and as this passes the law returns to normal. This bill is working, and within the next week, I believe it will be completed, but it all depends on the Parliament when it approves”, Krasniqi says.

Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, on June 3rd, on the day he became prime minister, in his statement before the Kosovo Assembly, had said that in the governing programme at one of the measures of the Economic Resilience Pack (peace for easing the consequences of the wording of the wording of the word "Condavi-19") he was supposed to place a percentage of the Fund's economy.

Krasniqi says that what is most close to living this initiative, which aims to help citizens cope with the situation created as a result of the coronary pandemic, is the withdrawal of 10 percent of the total amount of resources contributed to their accounts at the Fund.

We've talked about different modes, but what's left so far is to allow all of you to attract 10 per cent of the means depending on the contribution they have”, Krasniqi says.

The total value that could be withdrawn from Kosovo's Pension Savings Fund, according to Krasniqi, is about 180m euros, those that would stimulate the Aggrat demand on the market.

Simulating aggregate demand implies increasing costs that citizens would eventually make after receiving money from pension contributions.

Demi: Without a decision, no means can be withdrawn from the Pension Fund

The Kosovo Pension Savings Fund is an independent and non-profit public institution founded by the Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo.

Living Demi, the spokesman at this institution, through a written response has told Radio Free Europe that the issue of withdrawing funds from the Fund has not yet gone into any decision-making link in the country's institutions.

According to Demi, the Kosovo Trust of Pension Savings is the implementing policy institution that undertakes supervisory institutions, the Assembly of Kosovo and the Central Bank, and if a decision is made to implement it, the Trust is obliged to implement it.

The fund is created according to the model of defined pension contributions, meaning that each contributor is saving for a pension account.

The mandate of these savings is specific, because those with legislation in effect can only be used for retirement and cannot be used or withdrawn before retirement age for any other reason.

Trust manages over 2 billion euros before taxpayers' contributions

All employees (registered) in Kosovo pay 10 percent pension contributions from their salaries, 5 percent pay their employer, while 5 percent are paid from employed salaries respectively.

So far, two billion euros have reached the value of the means of around 700 thousand taxpayers in Kosovo, which manages the Pension Savings Fund.

Of this value, 75 percent of the tools are kept invested in international financial markets and 25 percent in Kosovo.

Citizens' Interest in Trust Tools, Large enough

The citizens' interest in attracting these tools seems to be quite great. The moment Prime Minister Hoti launched this idea, the Trust of Pension Savings had announced numerous citizens who had addressed Trust offices.

Citizens surveyed by Radio Free Europe welcome this initiative, as they say it would help alleviate the consequences it has had on family economies, Pandemia Covid-19.

Avdullah Sadiku, citizen of the Fusha Kosovo municipality, works at a security company. He says he would pull some of his tools if that were possible.

I would've pulled it, not all because we need it when it comes to old age. The 180-euro salary is low, and with that money that we would have withdrawn would help us”, he says.

Mirsad Krasniqi feels similarly.

I think it's a good initiative and it'll make it easier. There has been a drop in work in every segment”, he says.

International financial mechanisms in their published reports on the effects of pandemic on Kosovo's economy have estimated to have caused major damage.

The World Bank in its report has seen an economic decline of 4.5 percent in Kosovo. / REL