Pensioners could realize holiday cheer

  • 1999-11-25
VILNIUS (BNS) - Lithuania's state-run compulsory social insurance fund, Sodra, hopes to complete payment of pensions due this year by Dec. 24, Social Welfare and Labour Minister Irena Degutiene said. Sodra pays out 365 million litas ($91.25 million) in pensions monthly. To pay off pensions by Christmas, the cash-strapped fund will need to borrow some 50 million-60 million litas, she said.

Degutiene was speaking after a meeting with Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, attended also by Finance Ministry officials. It was decided during the meeting that Sodra would repay only part of its outstanding debt to the Health Insurance Fund this year.

"Sodra will not cover part of the debt. [The outstanding debt] will be carried forward to the next year, so that we could balance both the budget of the Hospital Fund and the budget of the social insurance fund itself," the minister said.

Sodra owed 85 million litas to the Health Insurance Fund on Nov.18.

Part of Sodra's debt to the Employment Fund, totalling 24 million litas on Nov. 18, will be also carried forward to the coming year, Degutiene said.