Soviet Private Enterprise Backed
Abel G. Aganbegyan, a leading economist and key adviser to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, has endorsed the idea of allowing private firms to provide a wide variety of consumer services.
Aganbegyan, who appeared Wednesday at an officially sponsored meeting with reporters to discuss his economic thinking, was once considered unorthodox, but Gorbachev’s plan for radical reform of the lagging Soviet economy have brought Aganbegyan and his associates into the mainstream.
In addition to advocating a role for private enterprise to compete with notoriously inefficient state-run services, Aganbegyan said he is opposed to multibillion-dollar government subsidies that keep down the price of meat, milk and bread.
As chairman of a state committee for studying productive forces, his views are expected to carry weight. Soviet sources said that as a personal adviser to Gorbachev, he has written some of the leader’s speeches on economic subjects.
Only in State Stores
Aganbegyan said he favors development of the private sector to provide a wide variety of services that are now offered legally only in state stores, where customer satisfaction is reported to be minimal.
Private firms are permitted to provide such services in East Germany and Bulgaria, he said.
“In a socialist country, it (private enterprise) can’t be a main form of economic activity but it can supplement the main work,” he said. “My personal belief is that it would be highly useful and has to be developed.”
He said that private activity in various forms is being developed in several of the 15 republics in an effort to improve the delivery of household services.
There are two methods of payment for private enterprises, he said. In one, the firm keeps 60% of all proceeds and remits 40% to the state; in the other, the firm pays a flat sum to the state for a certain service and keeps the rest, with no questions asked.
“The issues are still being discussed,” Aganbegyan said.
The Soviet Union is also considering a plan under which collective farms would be required to sell a minimum percentage of their crop to the state and dispose of the rest as they see fit. Above-quota amounts could be sold to the state or in private markets, he said.
Resembles Lenin Plan
A special commission, he said, is considering this plan, which resembles a system employed by V.I. Lenin, who imposed a “food tax” on peasants in the years before farms were forcibly collectivized.
Appropriate regulations are being prepared to implement the plan, he said, and added, “I personally think it will happen very soon.”
Aganbegyan also said he favors democratization of the work place--election of work team leaders and even factory directors--on grounds that this would improve productivity.
“We’ve got to go along this road,” he said.
The 43-year-old economist also disclosed a plan to link wholesale prices to demand for goods. Starting next Jan. 1, he said, a surcharge will be added to the price of products with strong consumer demand, and goods that pile up on warehouse shelves will be discounted by 5% to 15%.
No Major Price Shifts
As for retail prices, he said, no major change can be expected, although many economists see a need for improvement in this area as well.
“I personally believe the system of pricing needs a radical improvement,” Aganbegyan said, adding that he is opposed to the Soviet system of heavy subsidies for food and many other products.
Even if the subsidies were ended, there would have to be compensation to protect real incomes from the higher prices that would result, he said.
Asked how the Soviet Union would deal with unemployment that may result from its plan to eliminate 20 million jobs in manual work over the next 15 years, Aganbegyan said it would not be a problem. A majority of the people in manual work are quite old, he said, and nearly ready to retire anyway.
Five million workers will be retrained and a smaller-than-usual increase in the labor force over the next five years will help, he said.
