Friday, February 18 2011 18:43
Mega Pantera LLC enters liberalized market of pension payments in Armenia
ArmInfo. Mega Pantera LLC has entered the liberalized market of pension payments in Armenia. Souren Stepanyan, Director of Mega Pantera LLC, an operator of the private payment-settlement system, said at today's press conference that the company has already received about 30 thsd applications from pensioners.
"The total volume of their pensions, taking into account the amount of the average pension in the republic, ranges from 800 mln to 1 bln AMD", he said. To recall, there are about 520 thsd pensioners in Armenia, of them 470 thsd receive labor pensions, the rest receive social pensions. It is envisaged to allocate 164 bln AMD for payment of labor pensions from the state budget 2011.
To recall, before 2000 HayPost, the national postal operator of Armenia, carried out the payment of pensions in the republic. In 2000 a payment service was set up in the ministry of labor and social issues for that purpose. Pensions in the regions were carried out by HayPost. By the decision taken in Nov 2010, the government created an opportunity for the banks and payment-settlement systems to provide that service. "Both HayPost and any other operator of the payment-settlement system or a commercial bank in Armenia can carry out the payment of pensions", Stepanyan. According to him, in order to serve the pension payment, the company employs about 130 people, who formerly worked at the specified payment service.
To note, by the above-mentioned decision of the government, the ministry of labor and social issues or the customer of the pension payment service transfers 360 AMD per year to the bank or the operator for serving one pensioner. The opening of service of the banking or card accounts, the issue and service of cards, as well as cash withdrawal in the given bank's service points are be free of charge. No more than 0.5% of the amount is to be levied in case of cash withdrawal in the service points of other banks.
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