NEW FIVE-YEAR PLAN

Evening Star, Issue 25928, 21 October 1946, Page 7

NEW FIVE-YEAR PLAN

(Rec. 12,30 p.m.) LONDON, October 20. , The Russian Government is_ being rearranged and expanded, and is getting ready to implement a -new five-year plan, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The Supreme Soviet, after passing the first post-war Budget, ratified the appointments of 15 new junior Ministers, whose duties are an indication of the general lines planned. The developments 'in most Ministries are concerned with practical undertakings, such as domestic animal breeding, development of food reserves, and the production of cloth and foodstuffs. Some of the new Ministries indicate the increasing importance Russia is attaching to education, science, and research. The former committees for geology and universities, for example, become Ministries.

The five-year plan provides for complete technical re-equipment. The food industry, which has already begun investments in neiv machinery for food factories in the past three months, has equalled the total investments of three years before the yar. The new Budget shows_ a big increase in civil and a reduction iu military expenditure. Defence takes third place in the Budget, with a reduction from 128 billion roubles to 72 billion ' (the rouble is theoretically 10 to the £1).

Russia Getting Ready

The total expenditure, despite the reduction for defence, shows an increase of 6.9 per cent. —to 319 billion roubles. The, main provisions are for the expansion of heavy industry and agriculture. The main source of revenue, which is estimated at 339 billion roubles, is the tax on gross receipts, estimated to provide 60 per cent, of the revenue. The Budget estimates that the profit from State enterprises, which before the war was 13 per cent, of the totalrevenue, will be reduced because of the Increased costs of production. There is a 18 per cent, increase in the costs of coal production, attributed to • war devastation in the producing areas. The coal industry in the Donbas, for evample, is still only producing 50 per cent, of the pre-war output. One of the Ministerial rearrangements is the appointment of Georgyi Malenkov to be one of the numerous vice-chairmen of the Russian Council of Ministers, which is headed by Stalin. Malenkov is one of the five-secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. He in 1941 was a member of the Defence Committee with Molotov, Voroshilov,- nnd Pavlovitch Beria, who is now directing atomic research.* ■