20 April 2010, 15:12
Mykola Tomenko, the Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine deems that the latest declarations of the new authorities prove that it "commenced promoting the initiatives of our team, though with several years delay."
M. Tomenko declared that the story with the so-called privileged pensions "is long and sad." He reminded that Yu. Tymoshenko government for two times, in year 2005 and 2008, restricted the maximum rate of privileged pensions granted to the state officers, people´s deputies, prosecutors, judges, customs officers, diplomatic service officers, etc. "However, the Constitutional Court has for two times, after the appeals of Party of Regions, Communists and other parties, canceled the efficiency of the relevant amendments", M. Tomenko admitted.
"If Party of Regions resolved to uphold our five-year struggle for the equality in the pension provision, it is good news, though they were obliged at least, in the course of this issue scrutiny in the session hall express gratitude to us for the idea and excuse before the citizens of our state for the fact they have been denying fair pension system for five years", M. Tomenko is convinced.
The same story, according to M. Tomenko was with the so-called luxury tax. He reminded that it was Yu.Tymoshenko government that suggested scrutiny of this bill in the Verkhovna Rada for 2 times. "Luxury tax was put to vote in the Parliament for 2 times (in March and June 2009), though in the course of these two votings it received votes only from Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and part of Our Ukraine - People´s Self-Defence except certain famous politicians from Our Ukraine - People´s Self-Defence Bloc (Yu. Kostenko, M. Martynenko, I. Pliushch, P. Yushchenko, A. Yatseniuk) who have not uphold the bill for two times. The same concerns Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine, as they upheld it neither", M. Tomenko stated.
M. Tomenko repeatedly made the point that it is necessary to provide fairness in the social sphere, in particular it concerns "elite pensions" and "luxury tax."