Illustrative photo – The regular October meeting of the House continues. The deputies will approve the increase in the mobility allowance and in the first round they will discuss the draft state budget for next year, October 26, 2022, Prague.
Prague – The House of Representatives will meet on Tuesday, February 28 at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the controversial government proposal to reduce the June valuation of pensions. The extraordinary meeting was called today by the president of the lower chamber Markéta Pekarová Adamová (TOP 09) at the initiative of the coalition MPs. ČTK was informed about this by its spokesperson Martin Churavý. The opposition movements ANO and SPD have already announced obstruction. The meeting will probably last several days, and night parliamentary meetings are also possible.
Advertisement'; }
According to the draft, the merit percentage part of pensions should be increased by 2.3 percent and on top of all that by 400 crowns, which should, according to the reasoning, slightly favor pensioners with the lowest pensions. The average old-age pension would thus increase according to the documents for the amendment by 760 crowns instead of 1,770 crowns, by which it would increase according to the current rules, taking into account the rate of inflation. The cabinet justified the lower addition by trying to slow down the state's indebtedness.
In addition to the proposal itself, the opposition also questions the state of legislative emergency, which was declared by Pekarová Adamová at the request of the government and which is supposed to enable its faster approval. If the law is adopted, the opposition legislators are talking about challenging it at the Constitutional Court. The cabinet justified the request to declare a state of legislative emergency by the threat of significant economic damage.
By adjusting the June valuation, the state would spend an extra 15 billion crowns on pensions this year, according to the explanatory report. If normal rules were to apply, state budget expenditures would increase by 34.4 billion crowns. The smaller budget impact would continue in the following years. Next year, according to the rationale, it would be a saving of 33 billion crowns from the originally anticipated 58.8 billion crowns spent on extra pensions.