The National Pension Service(NPS) has proposed raising premiums for the sustainable operation of the National Pension Fund. 

An advisory panel on the national pension on Friday announced the results of its long-term projection, assessing that the pension fund for salaried workers and the self-employed is expected to bottom out in 2057. 

That's about three years earlier than previously estimated in the wake of the low birthrate, aging society and a slump in economic growth. 

The panel estimated that the fund will peak in 2041, or two years earlier than initially expected and that its amount will be around 800 trillion won less than the originally anticipated two-thousand-561 trillion won. 

In order to improve the fund’s sustainability, the panel proposed increasing premiums by either adjusting the payout ratio against lifetime income or the payout age. 

The first option is to maintain the pension's income replacement rate at 45 percent, but raise the monthly premium to eleven percent from the current nine percent. 

The second option is to gradually lower the replacement rate to 40 percent by 2028 and to increase the premium over the next decade to 13-point-five percent in phases, with the payout age adjusted to 67 by 2043. 

The pension agency said that it will devise a final plan after holding discussions based on the panel’s ideas and submit the plan to the government. It stressed that the plan will become final if it’s approved by parliament in October.