Updated 09:28 a.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will save 309 billion rubles, or about $8.2 billion, in 2015 as a result of a retirement pension funding reform, and will use part of the money to support the banking and energy industry, if necessary.
"Next year, as a result of the introduced moratorium on the funded component of pensions we will save 309 billion rubles, which will be included in the budget," – Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Monday.
Siluanov added that part of the money will be used to form the so-called anti-crisis reserve, which will serve to offer all the necessary support to key companies in the financial and oil and gas sector.
The companies have become subject to a new round of Western sanctions, which came into force last week. The measures were introduced by the European Union and the United States over Russia's alleged role in the Ukrainian crisis, something Moscow has repeatedly denied.
Payments for state retirement pensions in Russia include two components dependent on salary and crucial for future pension size – the insurance component and the funded component.
Money from the insurance component goes to fund current pensions, but the government takes an obligation to pay this money back to the citizen once he or she hits retirement age. Money from the funded component actually goes into a citizen's account in a retirement fund, which can invest the money on the citizen's behalf.
The retirement fund is managed by the Russian state-run Vnesheconombank, but citizens can transfer the money to another retirement fund.
