Employees at private companies and self-employed people covered by the National Pension Program will likely have to accept lower compensation beginning next year as the government moves to stem the fund's mounting deficits.

According to a draft of the National Pension Bill, the government is to reduce the insurance value to 55 percent of pension subscribers' income from the current 60 percent, starting in 2004.

The draft also calls for further cuts in insurance compensation to 50 percent of income by 2008.

Despite the planned reductions in compensation, however, pension subscribers will face steady rises in insurance premiums. They are scheduled to climb from the current 9 percent of present income to more than ten percent in 2010. The draft calls for raising the premium rate again to 15.9 percent by 2030.