The State Duma (Russia’s lower chamber of parliament) ratified the Agreement between the Russian Federation and Tajikistan on cooperation in the field of pensions on Tuesday, June 28. The Agreement was signed in Dushanbe on September 15, 2021.
Russian media reports say the document is based on the proportional principle and provides for the distribution of financial responsibility of the parties for the provision of insurance coverage for pension rights that were or are acquired in their territories.
The Agreement applies to citizens of the Russian Federation and Tajikistan, as well as members of their families.
The subject of the Agreement includes all types of insurance pensions, funded pensions and other payments at the expense of pension savings, social pensions (which are assigned and paid to citizens of the Russian Federation), and burial allowance (which is paid by the party on whose territory the burial was carried out).
If the insured person changes his or her permanent residence and moves to a third country, the payment of the assigned pension will be carried out by the party that appointed it, either in the territory of this party, or transferred to the territory of the other party.
Pensions established prior to the entry of the Agreement into force shall be retained and not revised, with the exception of the social (federal or regional) additional payment to a pension in the Russian Federation, and in case of a change of permanent residence by the insured person (when he or she moves to another country), whose pension was assigned on the basis of the 1992 Agreement.
Recall, Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandgon) ratified the government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Russia on the pension provision cooperation on April 13 this year.
The agreement was developed by Russia back in 2014-2015 and has been discussed by the authorities of the two countries for many years.
Over this period, seven rounds of negotiations between relevant officials of Tajikistan and Russia have been held and the issue was finally solved in September last year.
Under this agreement, a labor migrant having a patent, an agreement with an employer, an employment record book, an insurance number of an individual personal account (SNILS), and whose insurance fee is monthly paid by his/her employer to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation will be able to receive the Russian pension.
Besides, a Tajik labor migrant legally working in Russia can choose for himself / herself in which country he / she wants to receive a pension – in Russia or in Tajikistan.
According to official date from the Russian authorities, some 1.6 million Tajik citizens entered Russia to work last year. It’s a figure that many observers had suspected but had never before been reflected in official statistics, which usually record around 1 million.
Labor migrants are a critical component in the economy of Tajikistan and remittances keep many families at home above the poverty line.
