prise profits; 30 to 50 percent of amortization al- 

 lowances used for the replacement of capital and dif- 

 ferentiated by branches of industry; and receipts 

 from sales by the enterprise of unused and superflu- 

 ous equipment."- 5 



Finally, the introduction of new technology and 

 renovation of plants may be financed through bank 

 loans. Such loans are made available for a period 

 of up to six years under the condition that the costs 

 will be recouped within the indicated time. 86 i n gen- 

 eral, the New Products Fund, Development Fund, and 

 bank credit account for a large and increasing share 

 of the overall compensation for start-up expenses. 

 However, complaints are frequently voiced in the So- 

 viet press about the administration of each of these 

 programs, and a general consensus seems to prevail 

 that all justifiable if unanticipated start-up costs 

 still are not adequately covered. 



When any enterprise "auxiliary" activity, such as 

 innovation, tends to impact adversely on primary in- 

 dicators of establishment performance, Soviet author- 

 ities have often tried to counter this effect with a 

 special incentive program. By doing this, they admit 

 implicitly that parameters such as prices, which in- 

 directly influence the size of basic bonuses, do not 

 reflect accurately the true social benefits of the 

 activity. For example, a new product which initially 

 earns losses may signal a problem in the pricing sys- 

 tem rather than an inherently uneconomical product. 

 Rather than address the complex, interrelated factors 

 at the root of the problem, authorities add special 

 programs sequentially as a somewhat crude attempt to 

 compensate for these deficiencies. 



Approximately 30 such programs, several of which 

 impact on new technology, are currently in operation. 

 The most important of these, the Fund for the Creation 

 and Introduction of New Technology, has already been 

 described. Other examples are special incentives for 

 the export of Soviet technology abroad and for putting 

 foreign technology into operation. When technology 

 is exported, the Ministry of Foreign Trade allots to 



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