Soviets Give More Freedom to Private Business Cooperatives

The Soviet legislature today adopted a law giving more freedom to private business cooperatives after an unusual open debate on tax rates and bureaucratic rules.

The Supreme Soviet normally only approves laws put forward by the ruling Communist Party. A debate over provisions of a law presumably reflects a greater willingness and ability to speak out under leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s policy of openness.

The new law, a key element in Gorbachev’s economic reform program, sets tax rates for cooperatives while giving them broader business opportunities. It also ensures that their property may not be seized.

After lively debate, the Supreme Soviet amended it to allow local authorities to confer preferential tax treatment because of high demand for certain products or services. Another change called for a new decree on taxes to allow variable rates, also based on the particular product or service.

The law was to have been voted on at a joint meeting of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal parliament, on Wednesday. But officials at the meeting said that 22 parliamentarians spoke about the law in meetings of the separate chambers Wednesday morning and that it was delayed until today while a commission looked at the amendments.

Soviet Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov has said that the law was of “immense social and political significance.”

He said the cooperative system “in a short time can solve the most severe problems of perestroika, the demand of the population for goods and services.” Perestroika is the name for Gorbachev’s program of social and economic reform.