Regions Party against higher retirement age and cancellation of relaxed taxation needed to get IMF loan

An increase in the retirement age, the rise in fees for gas and housing utilities services to international levels, as well as the cancellation of a relaxed taxation system, are conditions for getting loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Regions Party has said.

"No matter how the government tries to camouflage these demands by the IMF and its subordination to them, nevertheless, [it is a fact that] if the government wants to get this money, it will be obliged to apply these policies. We are totally against such policies," one of the party's leaders, the head of the parliament's committee for finance and banking activity, Mykola Azarov, said in parliament on Tuesday.

He said that an increase in the retirement age (to 55 years for women and 60 years for men) is unacceptable for Ukraine with its low life expectancy, whereas a rise in prices for gas and municipal services should be avoided amid the fall in real wages and rising unemployment.