Costly Expe: ent in Government Russia prepares to put into operation its rece:
adopted All-Soviet State budget, it is po nent to inquire the manner in which for its costly experiment in Government, v Prof. Wassily Leontief, Sr. the Kremlin pay in e "Christian Science Monitor." At first the Soviet's State budget s considered by many observers to be a welcome oasis in the tax system of Soviet economy. It was heralded as offering a much more definite and stable annual prog me than the five year plan.
But after a quarter century; collectiort methods are becoming ever more complicated, bureaucracy is surrounding finance in a maze of uncertainty, hidden taxes are covering Up actual financing methods, and capitalistic methods € m the budgetary system as athing peculiar to private economics.
he current Soviet budget of 216,052,000,000 roubles (nominally the rouble is valued at about 19 cents (U.S), but since its withdrawal from the. international market, its value hi been estimated as low as 5 cents) represe: increase of 37,052,000,000 over the previous year's expendi!
Defence expenditures have jumped about 25 per cent, from 57,000,000,000 roubles spent in 1940 to 70,900,200,000 for current year. other outstand n expenditures is in ug jum the amount granted for the Russian Secret police—the G.P.U.—which this year will cost th e 7,318,000,000 roubles as compared with 0,000 in 1939. To meet these mounting costs, anticipated that State revenues will total 000,000 roubles.
pre-revolution s a large portion of this revenue was gleaned from taxes imposed upon lo of vodka, which was distributed by the e. Now, besides the tax on vodka which has ceased to be a prima e of income, the State levies a tax on bread which provides up-ards of one quarter of the total State revenue.
But the major burden of meeting State expenditure is placed upon the State-owned in-e form of so-called turnover tax 1 tax placed upon the profits of Herein lies the key to the employed by the Soviet Gov hose two are depicted as, ae tually they con a direct burden upon the boulders of the Rus: people. The turnover təx is a levy on annual sales or turnover, applying to all industry and trading companies including ce-operatives. The tax on profits is a annual levy on net profit from Soviet industries.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.