The State Treasury will take over the zł. 10 billion debt owed by ZUS

The Sejm has passed a Bill under which the State Treasury will take over the zł. 10 billion debt owed by the Social Insurance Office (ZUS). The debt comes from the premiums ZUS should have paid to open pension funds between April 1999 and the end of 2002. In order to carry out the operation, the Treasury will issue bonds that will mature within five to eight years and have their rate of interest adjusted each year. The new law is to take effect as of October 1, 2003 and, as scheduled by the Labor Ministry, the first tranche of bonds would be handed over to the pension funds in November this year. The whole operation is to be completed by 2006. Under the Bill, ZUS is obliged to inform the Labor Minister about its newly registered liabilities at latest on the third day of every month, while the Minister in turn is obliged to forward the information to the Finance Minister. (w ww.onet.pl; Parkiet, p. 1) J.K