On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court admitted the referral to the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ÎCCJ) in relation to the changes to the law on service pensions. CCR President Marian Enache explained, in a press statement, that the normative act will return to the Parliament to be put in agreement with the Court’s decision.
“The court held that the recalculation of service pensions in payment affects legal security in the non-retroactivity component of the law. Legal security requires and imposes a protection of the guarantees related to the preservation of the right that was acquired by issuing the retirement decision. The Court also observed that the non-contributory part of the service pension can be part of a separate taxation from its contributory part, subject to its application to all categories of service pension beneficiaries, without distinction. The criticized law thus introduces taxation, but does not clearly establish the basis of taxation, which is contrary to the quality requirements of the law”, stated Marian Enache
The president of the CCR also stated that the institution “remembered that the taxation cannot have a punitive nature because it practically leads to a rethinking and indirect restructuring of the very base for calculating the service pension”.
“As an effect of the decision, the law will return to the Parliament to be put in agreement with the Court’s decision, according to article 147 paragraph 2 of the Romanian Constitution. It is obvious that the extensive argumentation and reasoning that underpins this decision will be the subject of the final decision that will be published in the Official Gazette”, added Enache,
The CCR judges postponed, a week ago, the decision on the special pensions law for August 2nd and on the pension-salary cumulation law for September 21st, for additional clarifications.
On June 29, the High Court notified the Constitutional Court in relation to the Law for the amendment and completion of some normative acts in the field of service pensions, but also regarding the normative act regarding the increase of the retirement age.
The project refers to the special pensions of magistrates, soldiers, diplomats, parliamentary officials, the staff of the Court of Accounts, aeronautics. The normative act aims at the calculation of service pensions starting from seniority in the specialty, the reduction of the calculation percentage related to the earned income and the alignment of the minimum contribution period with that applied in the public pension system.
According to this law, prosecutors and judges will be able to retire until 2028 under the same conditions as before, that is, regardless of age, if they have 25 years of experience and benefit from a pension in the amount of 80% of the gross allowance and the last month’s increments of activity. Military retirees will benefit from the same retirement conditions provided by the laws in force, in the next five years. At the same time, pensions higher than 4,000 lei net will be taxed at 15%.