Pension plan amended

Parliament approves amended pension law of Physicians of Beirut, North

The parliament ratified, in November, an amendment to the law for the retirement fund of the Orders of Physicians of Beirut and the North (issued in 1954).

The amendments were made to articles two and five of the 1954 law.

According to the amended law, the fund would be supplied through a 0.5 percent fee on the FOB price of imported medicine and drug products, and a two percent fee on medical supplies and food supplements. Free on Board price indicates the pricing used for imports.

Before the amendment, a 0.25 percent fee was charged to the FOB price of medicines, while there was no fee on medical supplies and food supplement imports.

The law also indicated that importers of the products mentioned above (drugs, medical supplies…) shall post stamps corresponding to the value of the additional fees on the invoices. The implementation of this article shall be determined through a joint decision by the Ministers of Finance and of Public Health.

According to the amended law, each physician shall pay for the retirement fund a fee equivalent to twice the value of the retirement salary when registering the MD certificate. A similar amount shall be paid when registering each Certificate of Specialization.

Physicians shall also pay an annual subscription to the fund equivalent to 50 percent of the retirement salary.
Before the amendment, each physician used to pay a fee equivalent to 25 percent of the retirement salary for registering the MD, and 50 percent of the retirement salary for registering each Specialty Certificate. Specialist physicians used to pay an annual subscription worth 30 percent of the retirement salary, while non-specialists physicians paid a fee worth 15 percent of the salary.