The technical committee for the second pillar of the tax reform—which concerns provident funds—held its regular weekly meeting on Tuesday morning, during which Nikos Koulapis, Commissioner of Provident and Pension Funds, briefed the social partners on a range of issues, and an exchange of views took place.
According to CNA, in the coming days, the social partners will submit their positions on the issues discussed, while a new meeting of the technical committee will take place on Tuesday, October 27.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
During the briefing by Nikos Koulapis, Superintendent of Provident and Pension Funds, which took place in the presence of ILO Actuary Kostas Stavrakis, it was noted that an employee is currently entitled to take out a loan equal to 40% of the amount in their Provident Fund account, provided they meet certain conditions and submit the necessary documents.
Regarding employees’ current use of loans from provident funds, according to the same information, the Commissioner informed the social partners that the loans currently held by employees account for approximately 4% of the total amount of the Provident and Pension Funds.
If Pension Funds—from which borrowing is not permitted—are excluded, the borrowing rate currently stands at around 10–12%.
It was also noted that the total assets of registered provident and pension funds amount to approximately 4.9 billion euros.
Furthermore, during the session, a general discussion took place to document the current situation regarding borrowing by provident funds, and the need to establish an Independent Supervisory Authority to effectively oversee the operation of occupational pension plans was also discussed.
In addition, the extent to which—and the manner in which—any new regulation would affect the operation of existing Provident Funds and the tax treatment of the benefits provided by Provident Funds was discussed.
