"His proposal has surprised us and we shall accept nothing until we consider the index for the calculation of the debt (...), but the change of the formula for the adjustment of pensions is out of the question," Jordan told Hina on Wednesday.
He said he expected PM Sanader to explain his proposal at a meeting, scheduled for Thursday afternoon in the government's headquarters.
The Croatian Pension Funds Institute is expected to present final figures on the debt of the state to pensioners at that meeting.
Commenting on possible changes in the formula for the adjustment of pensions, Jordan said that the settlement of the debt and the pension indexation were two separate issues.
"The settlement of the debt in accordance with a 1998 ruling of the Constitutional Court is one thing and the adjustment of pensions to the growth of salaries is another," he said.
Since mid-2004, pensions have been adjusted every six months to the growth in salaries, but the government proposes the old formula under which pensions would be adjust twice a year according to a half of the sum of the growth in costs of living and salaries. The latter formula will lead to a smaller rise in pensions, which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) insists on.
PM Sanader told Croatian Television on Tuesday evening he was considering a possibility of paying back the debt to pensioners in cash at some discount and in a shorter period.
This model for the return of the debt has not been mentioned before. The interested parties have so far discussed the possibility of establishing a fund which will hold shares from state-owned companies and which will pay the debt to pensioners over a longer period of time.
Sanader also said that the government was waiting for the figures on the debt from the Pension Fund Institute and that this topic would be discussed later this week with pensioners' representatives.
He told Croatian television that the government and pensioners would also discuss pension indexation adding that it would be difficult to retain the current formula for the payment of pensions.