Georgia’s private sector is calling for an amnesty on unpaid administrative fines imposed by the Pension Fund. According to the Finance Ministry, businesses were fined more than GEL 6.7 million in the first seven months of 2026 for failing to meet pension contribution obligations.
Tax experts say many of the fines result from technical issues in the automated system, placing a particularly heavy burden on small and medium-sized businesses. “Lino” tax expert Salome Odisharia says companies can receive a GEL 500 fine over discrepancies of just 1–2 tetri between income and pension declarations. In some cases, repeated errors have resulted in fines totaling GEL 15,000–20,000.
Odisharia believes accumulated fines should be written off and the automatic GEL 500 penalty mechanism changed. She argues that the system should focus on ensuring timely pension contributions, while overdue payments could be collected automatically rather than imposing disproportionate fines.
The proposal was also raised by former Deputy Finance Minister and Tax & Legal Solutions founder Zurab Dznelashvili. He says millions of lari in fines, largely linked to technical problems, should be subject to a one-time amnesty. According to him, the newly introduced appeal mechanism at the Pension Fund cannot resolve the issue, as some appeal deadlines have already expired and some fines have entered enforcement.
