The pharmaceutical companies urge the National Government to urgently establish the mechanisms to regularize the historical debt of the Social Welfare Institute (IPS), which currently amounts to 258 million dollars. If the issue is not resolved in a month, the attention to the insured will be greatly affected, as they warned, due to the impossibility of continuing to comply with the provision to the institution.
The companies that are part of five pharmaceutical chambers and that are suppliers of equipment, reagents, technical assistance, supplies and medicines to the Social Welfare Institute (IPS), released a statement on Wednesday in a reserved space in all printed newspapers.
In the published note, the IPS providers recall that for five years the pension has had a deficit between its collections and the benefits it provides to the insured and retirees. And that all this allowed a large debt to be generated with this sector. Thus, the amount owed to date is 258 million dollars.
To solve the problem, businessmen They urge the Government to regularize the situation and that one of the measures is the approval of the project for the IPS to acquire new credits, but they rejected that this proposal threatens the retirement funds. They also assured that they are not lending themselves to alleged blackmail to collect the debt.
“There came a time when we can no longer, we must from here to there. All our accountants are seeing how to make the forecast for the debts and there is black blood sausage ”, he said Luis Ávila, Secretary General of the Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Chemical Industry of Paraguay (Cifarma)in an interview with Universo / Nación Media radio.
“The IPS situation is quite complex. Some senators said that the debt was not such, so we went to reconfirm that the debt is US$258 million,” he also stated.
The interviewee warned that if the legislative initiative is rejected, within 30 days the situation of the provision to the IPS will worsen, which will directly impact the attention to the insured.
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On the other hand, Ávila indicated to 780 AM that from the IPS they proposed two options to settle the debt: the first that the State pay, but the Treasury clarified that it will not be able to do so this year, and the second that Congress approve the bill law for new IPS debt.
“The comings and goings against the bill that is in the Senate, which supposedly goes against the insured, which is not true, goes in favor because it is going to solve a problem of a shortage that can be catastrophic. “There is an annual deficit that is around USD 70 million on average, which the IPS cannot cover with collections. The IPS gives more than it receives. All suppliers stop receiving from the month of August. We have spent 4 months without the IPS paying us any guaraní“, he pointed.
