Earlier this week, the new actuarial report of the National Social Security Institute (NSI) was released, with calculations and long-term forecasts for the state pillar of the pension system. To some extent, this report stirred up the spirits in the domestic media because it shows a serious deterioration in the financial condition of the state social security. Unfortunately, however, the comments …
More »Why the maximum social security income should not be raised
This weekend, the negotiations for a government between "We Continue the Change", "There Is Such a People", "Democratic Bulgaria" and the "Bulgarian Socialist Party" ended. Or at least the public part of them ended - the one that was broadcast live on the Internet. From what we saw, the negotiations generally went in relative harmony between the positions of the individual parties. Some …
More »The biggest danger facing second pensions
On October 12, a roundtable was held with the participation of the state, private funds, and experts, which was supposed to decide what the rules should be for paying the first pensions from the second insurance pillar, which is due to be in 2021. Or at least that's what they expected from the Association of Private Pension Funds, …
More »The biggest threat to the second pillar of the pension system
The biggest threat to the integrity and the general meaning of the second pillar of pension insurance are the ideas to make it more "social" or "solidarity" on the model of the first (state) pillar. We must never forget that, in theory, the state and private pillars of mandatory pension insurance should complement each other. One …
More »The second pension pillar and the fictional pyramids
Every year, with the voting of each new state budget, the topic of pensions is invariably raised. This year, the debate has been extremely heated, even reaching the point of statements that the second pillar of the pension system is a pyramid scheme. However, anyone who claims such a thing is lying to you, or simply does not …
More »Three fiscal ideas for Budget 2020
With the arrival of autumn comes the budget season in the country. The draft budget for the next year (or at least its final touches) is always prepared in October and published towards the end of the month, and every time we from EKIP evaluate it...with great disappointment. This time we decided to take matters into our own hands and …
More »EKIP in the media about pensions and health and tax reform proposals
In the midst of summer, our experts were sought after by the media on topics such as: healthcare, taxes and the tax system, pension system reform, stress tests of banks in the country. The month was marked by the extremely high activity of our health economist Arkadi Sharkov in the media space. In the program "Direct" on BulgariaOnAir television, …
More »EKIP in the media about VAT differentiation and pension increases
The activity of the experts from the EKIP continues in June with participation in media discussions related to reforms in the pension system and healthcare, the proposal to reduce VAT, entry into ERM II, legalization of marijuana, etc. The topic that most excited the public during the month was the proposal of the MRF to reduce …
More »Isn't it time to talk about Swiss-style pension contributions?
As you probably understood from the news, all pensions were increased by 5.7% today, and the maximum pension ceiling was raised from 910 to 1200 leva. In itself, for some, this increase is certainly a cause for joy. But in reality, it should be a cause for reflection. Because the latest actions …
More »How did our "Virtual Pension Fund" perform in its first year?
For over a year now, we at EKIP have been conducting a very interesting experiment. With the launch of the Virtual Pension Fund last year, we set ourselves the goal of illustrating what we mean when we talk about alternatives to the current pension system in Bulgaria. A system that, as you may know, we criticize extremely harshly. Because …
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