DUSHANBE, January 23, Asia-Plus -- To date, there are more than 500,000 pensioners in Tajikistan and an average monthly pension in the republic amounts to 26 Somonis, which is 10 Somonis more compared to 2004, Zokir Vazirov, Minister of Labor and Social Security, remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 20.    

According to him, for the purpose of strengthening the level of population’s social security the minimum wages, public sector wage, allowances to poor families and pensions were increased last year.   “To date, an average pension of the invalids of the Great Patriotic War amounts to 129 Somonis, an average pension of the veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 amounts to 116 Somonis and an average pension of the spouses of the servicemen who died in that war amounts to 82 Somonis,” said Vazirov, “More than 8 million Somonis were paid last year to some 500,000 poor families in the republic in compensation for payment electricity and more than 7 million Somonis were paid in compensation for payment for gas supplies.”