Do Siniša Mali, Ana Brnabić and PIO fund have different tables

The PIO fund has published on its website a table of companies that, starting today, give discounts to pensioner card holders.

Siniša Mali said yesterday that there are 650, and Ana Brnabić that there are 620. Donor companies will be applying faster than the Minister of Finance can update the Prime Minister.

It is clarified that the discounts apply to various areas, such as travel, staying in spas, pharmacies, car services, shops, health institutions, cultural institutions, restaurants, swimming pools, as if the discount amounts range from 2 to 66 percent, with a note that the majority is between 5 and 10 percent.

It is not specified until when these discounts are valid. Until the election?

The table has 42 pages. The number of companies has not been announced. I note that I looked at the list through the eyes of a pensioner below the Serbian average, like the majority.

I want to say right away that everything offered is okay, and of course every discount, even the smallest one, is welcome, but there are few things on the list that I use. When I say "I use", I mean only the things that I use often, which does not mean that I have not seen everything that would be useful to me, but...

I already classified the first offer on the list as a "but": 20 percent discount on the SPA center, on accommodation, on treatments at the spa in Novi Pazar. Next, a discount for intercity tickets, too. By the end of the first page of the table, there were seven more companies that offer discounts on car technical inspections and one pharmacy.

I am not the owner of the vehicle, and even if I were, as far as I know, the technical inspection is done only once a year, before registration. The pharmacy offered discounts for certain medicines and vitamins, and that is something a pensioner needs.

So, for now, one out of ten.

On the other side, the situation was better: only two car service centers and eight shops, pharmacies and health services.

One of those stores offered a discount on computer equipment, 10 percent for the purchase of a keyboard, mouse and other peripheral equipment, which everyone needs but not more than once a year, and one offered a 10 percent discount on bread, milk and various other things, but only between 10 . and the 12th of the month. (For those who don't know: in that period, there has long been a so-called "pensioner discount" in shops and pharmacies. And without a card.)

Then, one medical facility was offering discounts on driver's and gun exams - again nothing, one was offering a 10 percent discount on hearing aids that many will surely need, and a third was offering free prescriptions. That's what you need!

So again one out of ten.

Until the end, I just skimmed the table. My grandmother used to say "there is everything and nothing". Does anyone need an annual ticket for the cultural and artistic society even though it's 66 percent cheaper? BTW, is that the 66 percent discount Siniša Mali used to advertise the cards? I believe there are more, I just didn't notice.

How many times in your life do you buy a robot vacuum cleaner (10%), change tiles (5%), buy carpets (10%)? Do you have money for a vacation in Greece?

Of course, there is always someone somewhere who has money for Greece and who right now needs a sewing machine, truck transport, a karaoke set, or chimney sweep services - why not, maybe because of that 5 percent discount, they will decide to clean the chimney and thus contribute to cleaner air in his city.

I also came across offers that most people don't use, but which could lead them to change and to set aside from their pension at least one monthly trip to the swimming pool, or to an internet course, or to a museum, theater, which would certainly brighten up their retirement days. .

I want to say, just as much as "there is everything and nothing", it is also true that "every commodity finds a buyer". And that's okay.

But it is not right that a discount of two dinars per liter of gasoline is presented as a big relief for the pensioner's budget. Or that pensioners are told to go to the zoo only on a certain day at a certain time as if they were sick, to go shopping only on Saturdays in order to save five percent, and especially that they are offered a discount in stores on the 10th to the 12th of the month that , I'll repeat, it's been around for years. Pensioners are not stupid!

There are too many such examples. And that's humiliating.

Maybe that feeling would be less if the presentation of the pensioner card was not what it was.

"Tomorrow is October 1 and we have two good news for our pensioners. The increase in pensions and the application of pensioner cards are starting!", Sinisa Mali, Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, said yesterday on Saturday.

The headline in one portal was "Mali made the citizens happy: We have two good news!"

"In this way, we show not only care for pensioners, but also respect for them," the minister pointed out.

I don't believe that I am respected by someone who offers me a discount for something I can't even look at, let alone pay for, for a discount I already have, and for something I really don't need. Because it means that the one who offers me all this doesn't know how I live.

Oh, yes, there's something else:

The PIO fund table has 42 pages. There are ten discount providers on each side, except for the last one, where there are three. When all that is multiplied and added up, it is - 413. It will be that Siniša Mali and Ana Brnabić have some other tables.

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