As “a historic vote” qualified D.C. Deputy Matías Walker, chairman of the Constitution Committee, the passage of the reform that allows up to 10 percent of the individual accounts of AFPs funds to be withdrawn, for a single time, as a result of the economic and social impact generated by the pandemic.
Walker noted that “this is an option of real support to the middle class, built with all the opposition, and not with more indebtedness, as proposed by the Government. The Government was late with Emergency Family Income; he was late with the emergency post-natal, now he does it with this initiative, let’s hope he at least arrives.”
Walker added that “today we exceed the first fence, establishing this right to withdrawal exceptionally, of up to 10 percent of the planned savings with a minimum amount of one million and a maximum of 4,300,000 pesos and with a compensation fund that will be regulated by law, government initiative, where the way to compensate the least and the middle class is jointly and progressively established , so that there is no provisional harm from the exercise of this right of retirement at the time of retirement.”
Referring to the government’s middle-class plan, THE DC Deputy further noted that “Chileans do not want to continue to borrow; today we learned the worrying numbers of household indebtedness, earmarked more than 75 percent of debt-paying income, and more than 80 percent of Chileans support this withdrawal.”
Regarding Wednesday’s vote, Walker said that “we expect us to have the 93 votes for approval We know that the votes of the opposition are not enough and we hope that just like many of them, RN Members, they approved the emergency post-birth post; now they do it with this reform as well.”
For his part, the head of banker PPD Raúl Soto emphasized that “today is a historic day”, because “without a doubt, this initiative will allow all those Chileans who need to occupy part of their planned savings, to do so without exclusions, universally, in order to face the crisis. We call on all political forces to join this proposal and hopefully we will achieve the quorum so that it is approved in the Chamber of the House, dispatched to the Senate and is the law of the Republic.”
For her part, MS Carolina Marzán noted that “the solutions demanded by the country must be immediate. We must continue to make progress in approving reforms that allow pension funds to be withdrawn and not thinking about loan and loan formulas for people by telling them that it is the way to deal with the crisis, when they are only being taken into debt, uncertainty and unease.”
“We value the commission’s vote because it opens the door that Finance Minister Ignacio Briones closed, installing the need for liquidity from money that belongs to people. I do not see why the Government admits to recourse to cessation insurance and establishing that AFPs are untouchable, this dichotomy between what is owed and what is not, sends an equivocal message to the millions of Chileans who are now in debt and, in the face of the crisis, they are only offered more debt, while the AFP funds are there , auguring pensions that are not even worthy,” said MEP Marzán.
Also, Deputy Tucapel Jiménez stated that “this is an urgent need today. We have to get to the middle class with support. The argument that says bread for today and hunger for tomorrow is not much basis because the urgency is today, and pensions with or without withdrawal will remain unworthy.”
“It is not understood why the Government continues to defend the AFP industry so much, and it calls into question the right to property. This is the workers’ silver and at such a critical time and with the uncertainty that exists in the world, no one has much chance of thinking about the future,” concluded the Deputy Jiménez.
In turn, humanist MEP Pamela Jiles said that “the Constitution Commission took the first big step in allowing workers to withdraw some of their planned funds amid the current health and social crisis resulting from coronavirus.”
Jiles stigmatled the lawmakers of Chile Vamos who in full, chose to reject the constitutional reform and assured that “the Government and the right once again aligned the interest of the AFPs, p(o history will judge them and it will be written that when Chile experienced its most serious social and health crisis, the Government of Piñera chose the path of indebted to Chileans and defending the interests of the richest.”
In this context, the communist MP Hugo Gutiérrez, together with approving the initiative, made a location to the Chamber of Deputies, which will begin the analysis of the parliamentary motion on Wednesday.
“88% of the population agrees with the right to withdraw from these funds accumulated in the AFPs. I have no doubt that when the public becomes aware of this collective pension fund, it will also agree with that. I believe that we are trying to represent the citizen sentiment that this retreat demands today and of course those who are against it are grouting against the history and interests of our citizens,” the PC MP said.
