The idea of reforming the three-pillar old-age insurance system put forward by the World Bank suggests that the first and second pillars should be established by compulsory means. The main body responsible for the first pillar is the state, which should raise funds through taxes to realize the redistribution of income, so as to achieve the most basic goal of "fairness." In the second pillar, enterprises are mainly responsible for establishing personal accumulation accounts for employees, so as to achieve the purpose of insurance and savings. The third pillar is established on a voluntary basis to meet the higher level of pension demand.

In the early 1990s, China established the goal of gradually establishing a three-pillar old-age insurance system.

Comparing China's current three-pillar old-age insurance system with the multi-pillar old-age insurance model recommended by international organizations, it is not difficult to find that each pillar in China's current system deviates from its proper nature, function and goal to varying degrees:

First of all, the financing methods and sources of basic old-age insurance are inconsistent with the goals it should achieve.

Second, it is difficult to meet the needs of the development goal of enterprise annuity in China by "voluntarily" establishing enterprise annuity.

Third, as the third pillar, the development of individual pension savings plan has almost stagnated.

It is precisely because the financing responsibility of the first pillar has been transferred to the enterprise, and it is difficult for the second pillar to have enough room for development, so the development of enterprise annuity has to be voluntary. At the same time, they are worried that some enterprises will "hitchhike" in the payment and collection of basic old-age insurance, and adopt a "restrictive" policy on the development of enterprise annuities, excluding a large number of enterprises willing to establish enterprise annuities, which on the one hand inhibits the development of enterprise annuities and on the other hand aggravates the imbalance between regions and enterprises.

There are deeper historical backgrounds and reasons that lead to the above-mentioned problems in China's three-legged pension insurance system: in the process of China's economic system transition, due to the lack of "special reserve" for paying the pension debts left over from the old system, the new pension system of "unified account" has assumed the "double" responsibilities of the old and new systems from the beginning, not only facing the historical pension debts formed under the old system in the past 50 years, but also preparing pensions for people under the new system. However, the task of "immediate payment" of pensions left over from the old system is imminent. Therefore, on the one hand, the government increases the proportion of enterprise basic pension, on the other hand, it increases the proportion of public accounts as much as possible. This is the institutional reason that leads to great pressure on enterprises to pay fees, aggravates the phenomenon of "hitchhiking" in the payment link and has a low level of overall planning. Moreover, this method of "living within our means" has also led to a large-scale deficit in the basic pension payment under the new system, which is actually still a pay-as-you-go system.

Tentative ideas and suggestions on reconstructing the three-pillar endowment insurance system in China;

First of all, the pension debt left over from history should be solved through special channels.

According to the calculation of the World Bank, from 5438+0 in 2006 to 5438+0 in 2076, the proportion of implicit debt in China's urban basic old-age insurance in GDP was always above 100%. By 2006, the implicit debt of urban basic old-age insurance reached more than 25 trillion yuan, which also showed a rapid growth trend. If the hidden debt is not solved well, it will bring great pressure to the future finance. Although the State Council defined "the new way for newcomers", "the middle way" and "the old way for the elderly" in the "Decision on Establishing a Unified Basic Old-age Insurance System for Enterprise Employees" (1997), the sources of pension funds for middle-aged and elderly people have not been clearly implemented.

So far, the major reform policies promulgated by the state have not put forward clear solutions to the problems of how to raise and pay off pension debts formed in history and how to connect the old and new pension systems. In reality, the personal account and the social co-ordination part of enterprise payment designed by the new endowment insurance system bear the above-mentioned "heavy responsibility left over from history". If this problem is not clearly solved, it will not only be impossible to solve the "hitchhiking" problem of "social overall planning" in reality, but also difficult to achieve national overall planning.

Therefore, it is suggested that the pension liabilities under the old and new pension insurance systems must be clearly defined. For the old-age debt left over from history, in addition to arranging special budget funds to solve it every year, it can also be solved by issuing special government bonds (central and local), or it can be repaid by the value-added part of the basic old-age insurance fund in future years. Only in this way can we fundamentally solve the premise problem of reconstructing the three-pillar endowment insurance system.

The second is to change the basic old-age insurance fee into old-age security tax or social security tax through legislation.

This is consistent with the nature, function and goal of the first pillar, which can not only enhance the financing rigidity of the basic old-age insurance fund, but also solve the problems of soft collection and hard support in the current implementation of overall planning by administrative means, and it is difficult to improve the overall planning level. The old-age security tax is levied according to the principle of wide range (all registered enterprises are included in the scope of taxation) and small amount (the tax rate is low and needs further calculation), which can not only effectively reduce the burden on enterprises, but also ensure sufficient tax sources. "Changing fees into taxes" is also the inevitable trend and requirement of standardizing the form of government revenue under the condition of market economy in China.

Third, legislation is adopted to force enterprises to establish enterprise annuities.

Throughout the world, there are three types of implementation of enterprise annuity plan: compulsory, voluntary and quasi-compulsory. International organizations also suggest that the establishment of enterprise annuity can be compulsory, voluntary or a combination of the two. Which type is adopted is related to the relevant institutional background of each country at a specific stage of development and directly related to the goal of establishing an enterprise annuity system in that country. According to the present stage of China's economic system reform and the problems faced by the development of enterprise annuity, it is believed that China should enforce it through legislation. First of all, a large number of private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises in China are important objects that cannot be ignored in the development of enterprise annuity. Secondly, enterprise annuity has not been used by most enterprises as a mechanism to attract and motivate talents. Third, the oversupply of the labor market is another reason why China needs to take compulsory measures to promote it.

Of course, compulsory measures are mainly aimed at the minimum standard part of enterprise annuity. The part exceeding the minimum standard can be set up voluntarily by enterprises under the framework of national encouraging tax preferential policies to meet the flexibility demand of enterprise annuities. At the same time, in order to give consideration to efficiency and fairness, and prevent some enterprises from establishing generous annuity plans for only a few executives, or some enterprises with good benefits from evading taxes by establishing enterprise annuities, the state should formulate strict tax policies for adjustment and strict examination.

Fourth, take appropriate measures to encourage the development of the third pillar.

China has always had a tradition of high savings rate, and the development of personal pension savings plan has unique advantages. China only needs to formulate corresponding financial policies to guide it, which can be implemented through the publicity of the financial sector. For example, financial institutions can open special accounts for personal pension savings, give more favorable interest rates than ordinary time savings deposits, exempt this part of interest income tax, and stipulate the shortest savings period for withdrawal, so as to achieve the purpose of developing the third pillar.