BCR president says new AFP seizures are ‘crazy’

Offer Congresswho is looking for the seventh withdrawal of AFP funds, didn’t get along with the president Central Reserve BankJulio Velarde, who called the Parliament’s intention “madness”.

“It never occurs to anyone that they can withdraw money (…) To remove it would be crazy. There is no country that does not have a pension system (…) They destroy the pension system,” said Velarde, answering a question about this, during a press conference he gave on the report inflation March 2023.

The proposal for the withdrawal of about 4 tax units (UTU) has already been technically analyzed BCR and this opinion was referred to the Economic Commission under the chairmanship of the Congressman from strength of the people Rosangela Barbaran.

“This proposal causes great damage both to the branches themselves and to the economy as a whole. The current situation in the national economy does not justify the approval of new extraordinary withdrawals from pension funds,” the document says.

What do international structures say?

According to Velarde, the opinion of multilateral organizations justifies the seventh recall in less than three years only in case of emergencies, which does not seem to be the case. In addition, it could run counter to measures being put in place to stop inflation and affect those with few resources or who ran out of funds on a previous withdrawal.

“Furthermore, allowing withdrawals from pension funds will generally end up increasing consumer spending for those affiliates who are not necessarily affected by the recent situation,” he elaborated in his technical opinion.

MEF supports BCR arguments

Let’s remember that Economy and Finance Minister Alex Contrerasa possible seventh withdrawal from the AFP was announced a few days ago, as well as the head of the Labor portfolio, Alfonso Adriansen.

“Retirement was understood in the context of a pandemic, when people could not work. It’s a completely different context. The more withdrawals there are, the more the size of the funds will decrease, and in the long run it will cost money,” Contreras said.

For his part, Adriansen said: “I think we are already exaggerating in these measures, what needs to be done is to strengthen the protection of the pension fund until we have a comprehensive pension reform.”