A person walks in front of a Peugeot automobile dealership in Paris December 13, 2013.

CREDIT: REUTERS/CHARLES PLATIAU

(Reuters) – French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) is usually to cut how big its executive pension packages, French daily Les Echos reported, months after public criticism forced former chief executive Philippe Varin to transform down his pension.

The struggling carmaker’s supervisory board has approved new methodology that cuts the amount provisioned by the company for executive pension packages to 16 million euros ($22.26 million) for 2013 versus 70 million for 2012, Les Echos reported in a pre-released version of its Thursday edition.

A Peugeot spokesman confirmed that its rules for calculating pension packages were being changed but failed to comment on the figures cited by Les Echos. “”We will be publishing proposals to get put to shareholders for your implementation of a new methodology for pension packages,”” he explained.

Peugeot, which is raising 3 billion euros in a rescue deal with Chinese partner Dongfeng (0489.HK) and the French state, is in the midst of a 1.5 billion-euro savings drive beneath the leadership of brand new CEO Carlos Tavares and incoming chairman Louis Gallois.

Peugeot’s previous CEO Philippe Varin said in November he would turn down his pension package, for which the organization had set-aside 21 million euros, due to the public backlash it had sparked in France.