KRSTIC: We will also cut pensions by year's end

Lazar Krstic (Photo: YouTube/screenshot)

Finance Minister Lazar Krstic has stated that pensions in Serbia will also have to be reduced by the year`s end.

As he noted, the priority of his ministry will be fiscal consolidation and the introduction of financial discipline.

In an interview with the national broadcasting corporation RTS, Krsstic said that Serbia should save about RSD 170 billion over the next four years, adding that savings in 2014 and 2015 alone should be at about EUR 1 billion and that the public sector had redundant workers.

Krstic said that although the Government would do everything to alleviate the negative effects of financial consolidation on the people of Serbia, it was most likely that pensions too would have to be reduced in the next budget.

The minister also said that it was necessary to analyze the situation and determine how public administration should look like and whether public enterprises should have a social role and their workers large benefits.

He reminded that the Serbian government would cut salaries in the public sector by 10 percent and abolish the solidarity tax on July 1st.