Reform of the public service pension system has gained momentum after President Park Geun-hye and the leaders of the country’s main political parties reached a general consensus Tuesday.

A special parliamentary committee has been debating the proposals by President Park and her governing Saenuri Party to revise the pension system for retired government workers, citing concerns that the debt-ridden fund could soak up trillions of won from government coffers if left unreformed.

Weeks of circular talks have failed to produce results, but Tuesday’s agreement among President Park, Saenuri Party chair Rep. Kim Moo-sung and main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy chair Rep. Moon Jae-in is expected to kick new life into the debate.

“The president and Reps. Kim and Moon also agreed on the need to reform the public service pension,” senior NPAD spokesperson Rep. Kim Yung-rok said of the three-way meeting at Cheong Wa Dae.

The Saenuri Party and the NPAD have been at loggerheads over reforming the public service pension for months.

The public service pension has been cited as one of the main causes of the snowballing public debt.

Some calculations estimate that the pension could absorb up to 18 trillion won ($15.9 billion) from public coffers annually from 2030 if left unreformed.

The Government Employee Pension Service asserted that the funds could require more than 8.8 trillion won per year in government subsidies for it to be maintained by 2023, from current levels of 3.29 trillion won.

Experts, pension benefactors and lawmakers from both the NPAD and the Saenuri Party have agreed that the pension must be revised, but they have disagreed as to how the funds should be restructured.

The Saenuri Party supports a plan that would force senior officials with higher salaries to pay more to the public service pension and receive less after retirement while lower-level public officials would pay less to the pension and receive more after retirement.

Government workers, though, have supported a plan that would require them to pay amounts proportionate to their salaries.

The NPAD has yet to propose a plan of its own but Moon is expected to present his version in the near future. Moon has proposed they continue the debate regardless of the slated closure of the special committee on May 2.

(hj257@heraldcorp.com)