Is the share of social security cut in the recent budget reforms?

Labor union activists stubbornly managed to include 70 thousand billion tomans of social security contribution in the 1402 budget bill; The payment of these 70 thousand billion tomans, which may not include one-third or one-fourth of the government’s real debt to the organization, is not cash in any way; Part of this payment is going to be done with clearing and another part is going to be done with oil and gas sales license! This last one is a hard and exhausting task for an insurance organization that should, as a rule, focus all its attention on providing services to the target society, and it is not that simple.

The government, which has always emphasized that “insurers should leave the business sector and hand over their companies and subsidiaries to the private sector”, has now, in a different decision, turned them into intermediaries for the sale of oil and gas. The government claims that it does not have a cash budget and the organization is “forced” to settle part of its debt through the license to sell oil and gas.

With all of this, in the complex structure of the last months of the previous year, the same 70 thousand billion tomans that was specifically allocated to the government’s debt to the social security organization in the budget law, was, in the end, a positive point of reference; In any case, paying this amount – in any way possible – can save social security from the liquidity crisis and the frightening inability of the budget deficit. But apart from the concern about the time and method of payment throughout the year, there is another serious concern: Is it supposed to eliminate or significantly reduce the share of social security with the “Amendment of Budget Law 1402” with the aim of compensating the budget deficit? be

The news shows an attempt to amend the budget law; On April 14th, the Chairman of the Program and Budget Commission of the Shura Assembly said: In the joint meeting between the Assembly and the government, the President announced that the budget amendment bill 1402 will be sent to the Assembly soon.

According to the president, “the amendments to the 1402 budget law are extensive”. So that according to the government’s budgeting team, there are discussions in the 1402 budget that prevent the implementation of the work and create problems for the government; Apparently, these reforms include all parts of the budget.

Now the concern is whether the 70 thousand billion tomans social security share will also be changed, weakened or eliminated; The government plans to curb the severe budget deficit this year by cutting budget expenses on the one hand, and curb inflation on the other hand; It seems that the blade of reforms is going to bring a deep cut in government spending; But the point is that the share of social security in the budget is not among government expenses, this insufficient credit is one of the historical debts; A debt that should have been paid long ago, but there has been a delay…

Hasan Sadeghi (head of the union of veterans of the labor community), who followed the issue of the social security share in the budget in the parliament; In this regard, criticizing the possible reforms, he says: It seems that the Program and Budget Organization has taken a leap in order to remove part of the expenditure items, including the credit allocated to social security, in the name of reforming the budget. Undoubtedly, this movement, the embodiment of the movement, is against the collective interests of the workers and endangers the future of the workers in the short and medium term.

Sadeghi emphasized that this issue is very important for us; He adds: The reason for these reforms is to adjust inflation, and this is while the budget for the new year has not yet been announced, but this month, inflation is at least two percent higher than the previous month. Therefore, what they call “inflationary effects of the 1402 budget” has no place in the Arabs! Based on the information we received, the head of the Program and Budget Organization asked the president to issue permission to delete some budget lines, including the organization’s share; This action is not at all accepted by the workers and before they take scissors in their hands and remove the organization’s share, we warn them not to complain if this happens to us and we protest.

The current debt of the government to the organization this year, including the increase in the applied salaries, amounts to one hundred thousand billion tomans or even more; This debt is for three percent of the insurance premium of the government’s share for regular insured persons and the employer’s insurance share of 23 special groups, the payment of which is the responsibility of the government according to the law; With this account, a channel should be opened to pay this current debt in the government budget; In addition, when there is no effort to pay the current debt, it is not possible to take a pair of scissors and remove 70 thousand billion tomans of historical debt from the middle.

What the workers want, according to Sadeghi, is “not the elimination and adjustment of the credit of the Social Security Organization in the budget, but the promulgation of the faster budget law and the preparation of its implementation.” Anything other than this is not approved and accepted by the workers.

There is no doubt that removing the support clauses of the budget is not the right way to compensate for the government’s liquidity deficit; Besides, inflation control has other solutions; Some of these solutions can be defined and implemented in the economic sphere and others in the political and international sphere. It is in such a situation that labor activists rightly say, “in recent months and years, inflation has been imposed on us unintentionally and inevitably and has made our lives difficult. Please recognize our other historical rights and start creating a crisis for the organization.” Don’t get social security.” This is the minimum floor of workers’ demands in the field of welfare and social security, which cannot be imagined at all.

Source: Ilana