EFKA faced with crash test
The amount of revenue collected over the next four months – until the end of the year – will determine the financial health of the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA), according to analysts. However, this period could prove to be an uphill battle in terms of revenue collection, as EFKA must start receiving contributions in order to make one-off payments and pay auxiliary pensions.
At the same time, it must also calculate the amount of contributions that must be made by 1.4 million self-employed people on the basis of their net declared 2016 income.
These factors, which are expected to place a considerable burden on several thousand self-employed people and farmers, will also determine the amount of revenue EFKA can expect by the end of the year.
Up until now, the fund has been kept afloat mainly thanks to contributions by salaried workers. So far, revenue from contributions by self-employed professionals and farmers remain relatively within set targets – as the rates of contributions collected hover between 60 and 65 percent.
While there are still about 11,000 insured people who do not know what they have to pay for the current year, EFKA’s income, according to its governor, Thanasis Bakalexis, has shown a satisfactory increase in revenue.
The fund presented a surplus in the order of 129 million euros for the month of June, while estimates for July suggest an even greater surplus, mainly due to the increase in employees’ contributions by at least 15 percent compared to the same month last year.
Moreover, Deputy Labor Minister Tasos Petropoulos predicts that despite an initial deficit forecast of 765 million euros at the end of the year, the first EFKA balance sheet will be balanced.
With this in mind, the next four months will be decisive.
The end of October, in particular, will provide an indication of the course the Single Social Security Entity’s revenue collections will take as that will be the time when the contributions people must make, based on their net income in 2016, will be calculated. Payment notifications to insured people will be issued in November.
