The 5 percent consumption tax would have to be doubled to fully finance the state pension program with levies, the private-sector members of the government's top economic panel said Thursday.
The basic pension program is financed one-third by tax revenues and the rest by premiums, but the state's burden is set to rise to half by fiscal 2009.
With premium payments falling along with the rapidly graying population and declining birthrate, the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy is discussing the option of fully funding the system by taxes to keep it afloat, and multiple increases in the consumption tax are considered inevitable.