Romanian state pensions will rise by 40% on average from next September, following recalculations set by a pending bill, boosting pension spending to 13.8 billion lei ($2.97 billion) per month, Labour Minister Bucura Oprescu said.

Pension reform is a condition for Romania to keep tapping European Union recovery funds and the EU state has committed to eliminating inequalities and removing election-driven political decisions from pension increases.

Under a pending pension bill, for which the government is seeking parliamentary approval this month, as a first step five million pensions will be indexed by 13.8% in January.

The recalculation, scheduled for Sept. 2024, will eliminate inequities by ensuring people who did the same job for the same number of years will get the same pension.

The bill, which was supposed to be approved in the first half this year, has been repeatedly postponed and will be enforced from 2024, when Romania holds local, parliamentary, presidential and European elections.

The hikes are expected to help the coalition government garner voter support.

Overall, state spending on pensions will rise to roughly 146 billion lei ($31.45 billion) in 2024 from roughly 115 billion lei this year.

Just under 2 million Romanians, or 10% of the population born under a communist-era abortion ban will reach retirement age after 2030, a destabilising increase to the pay-as-you-go state pension system. ($1 = 4.6426 lei) (Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Barbara Lewis)