Russia’s budget received additional revenue from raising the retirement age even a year earlier than expected, as the number of recipients of old-age insurance pensions decreased by 400K in January-September 2019. According to the National Rating Agency, that saved the government more than RUR 20 bln ($300 mio).
Earlier, experts argued that a tangible effect of the reform will not be seen until 2020. Head of the Accounts Chamber Alexei Kudrin estimated that the annual savings from the pension reform at RUR 1 trn ($15 bln), starting in 2024. In the first few years, according to Kudrin, the government would save more than RUR 100 bln ($1.5 bln), Izvestia writes.
However, experts did not expect any additional government revenues in 2019 and were mistaken. The National Rating Agency said the federal coffers did gain extra money.
Now these amounts can be redistributed for various purposes, including indexing the pensions for people who have already retired.