Lower house approves lower pension growth

Prague, Sept 5 (CTK) - The Czech Chamber of Deputies yesterday passed by the minimum of 101 votes necessary an amendment to the pension law providing for a lower rise in pensions that the left-dominated Senate vetoed previously.

The amendment is yet to be signed by President Vaclav Klaus.

Under the amendment, pensions will be indexed over a period of three years starting in 2013 with one third of the growth in prices and one third of the rise in real wages.

Now the pensions are indexed by the whole rate of inflation.

The amendment is a part of the government-sponsored austerity measures aimed to decrease budget deficits.

Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jaromir Drabek (TOP 09) said he knows the legislation is unpopular, but that "it is needed from the point of view of consolidation of public deficits."

The state should save some 48 billion crowns over the three years.

The opposition says the amendment is asocial and immoral and that the real level of pensions will be decreasing.

If the amendment takes effect, the average pension that is now about 10,550 crowns will increase by about 156 crowns instead of the originally expected 428 crowns.

After the lawmakers passed the amendment, they started to discuss the Senate-vetoed stabilisation package that will not probably make it through because six deputies of the senior government Civic Democrats (ODS) said they will not support it.

The Chamber of Deputies agreed earlier yesterday that it may be voting on bills until late at night.

($1=19.781 crowns)