Anif criticized Petro's proposal on pensions: “it should not be treated with lies or confusing arguments”

The National Association of Financial Institutions (Anif) assured that candidate Gustavo Petro's pension reform proposal would be intended to confuse people.

He pointed out that the issue of pensions is one of the biggest fiscal and equity problems that Colombia faces and will face, at least for the next 100 years, it is of great interest to the country and with a high level of sensitivity, which is why “it is not a minor issue nor should it be treated lightly, much less, with lies or arguments confusing”.

He then pointed out that “the proposal to use people's savings as if they were public money shows little or no understanding of how pension systems work in our country.”

In addition, Anif added that somehow taking the savings that are today in the Pension Fund Administrators (AFP), which belong to almost 18 million Colombians and which today amount to about $358 billion, to finance current public spending, to pay the pensions of all through the Medium Premium Regime that it administers Copensiones (RPM) and to subsidize a payment to older adults living in poverty.

In addition, candidate Petro said that an income of 500 thousand pesos should be given to older adults in this situation.

The entity points out that “to use to justify the 'nationalization' of the savings pensions of the Individual Savings Scheme (RAIS), under the arguments of equality and the fight against poverty, is incorrect”.

Asif called on all presidential candidates to have such debates with grounded figures and not from ambiguous, confusing perceptions or completely incorrect information.

The comments began after the presidential debate that took place under the El Tiempo y Semana alliance, where the presidential candidate spoke about the issue after being questioned by Federico Gutiérrez, who won the consultation of the Centro Esperanza coalition.

Faced with the questioning, Petro assured that this money would come out of the pension system, and that was when the issue of Colpensiones came up, which generated quite a lot of doubts among citizens who expressed it through social networks.

“Where does that silver come from? For a reform of the pension system, the money is there, it is not needed any more, it does not need to be printed, it needs to change its distribution,” said Gustavo Petro.

As explained by the same candidate, this idea is based on systems that have already been applied in other countries, such as Uruguay.

“Instead of having private pension funds, with poorly managed individual savings contributions at 30% that they collect in a bank, you send that money to a public fund: Colpensiones. With that money we immediately pay the current pensions that the State is paying today,” said Petro.

Thus, the State would be released from 18 billion pesos annually from the budget, to pay the pension bonus of 50 thousand pesos to three million people.

To make the issue a little clearer, the leader of Human Colombia added: “The contributor in Colpensiones pays the pension, who contributes is because he wants a pension. When he reaches his age, the contributors of that time pay him his pension. It is a method that guarantees the pension. The method that you defend, Law 100, no longer has a pension, took away the pension from Colombians”.

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