Santiago, Chile, Jul 9 (Prensa Latina) After one of the most intense debates in recent times, the Chilean Chamber of Deputies approved the idea of legislating that citizens may have part of their pension funds.
The project, presented on Wednesday by legislators of the Social Green Regionalist Federation (FRVS) and independents, seeks to authorize, for once and to face the social and economic crisis, that the members of the Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) can withdraw up to 10 percent of cash deposited in those entities, something unprecedented in Chile.
Since the project was approved on Monday in the Constitution Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, the government put all resources on risk to achieve it was rejected, without getting it. Finally, Wednesday’s vote result was 95 for (93 were needed to approve it), 25 against and 31 abstentions.
After the vote, Jaime Mulet, president of FRVS, the party promoting the project, described the vote as historical and as an important step on the way to transforming the AFP, one of the strongholds of the neoliberal model in Chile, and towards the creation of a more solidary pension system that complies with the retirees’ needs.
According to recent surveys, 85% of Chileans are for the right to freely make use of cash deposited in the AFP.
ef/iff/rgh/rc
