nal confusion, bureaucratic interests, and a
reluctance on the part of many enterprise directors to assume the added
measure of responsibility that is inherent in a greater freedom to
exercise initiative. Most of the officials are aware, nevertheless, that
the basic problem lies in the absence of adequate incentives. The
reconciliation of an obligatory central plan with enterprise autonomy
has thus far proved elusive.

Planning in the field of collective agriculture has also been highly
centralized, at least through 1971, despite measures introduced at the
end of 1970 to reduce the number of plan indicators for individual
farms. Detailed instructions on crop and livestock production and on the
volume of farm products to be delivered to the state have been handed
down to farms by higher authorities insufficiently familiar with their
natural and economic conditions. This method of planning has entailed
significant losses through improper use of land and other resources.
The relatively minor relaxation of central controls beginning in 1971
was intended to eliminate this waste. The extent to which central
controls over farming operations were retained even after the announced
decentralization of agricultural planning was illustrated by the Grand
National Assembly's enactment of a law toward the end of 1971 concerning
correct methods of producing and using livestock fodder. Information on
the method of planning for state farms was not available.

PRICE SYSTEM

As in all centrally directed economies, prices are set by the
government. In 1967 the National Party Conference called for a reform of
the price system on the grounds that the prevailing prices failed to
ensure the desired balance in economic development or to promote greater
efficiency in production and foreign trade. After four years of
intensive debate, a new price law was enacted in December 1971.
Preliminary information on the provisions of the law indicated that
prices would continue to be fixed by the government, although the method
of calculating them had been modified. In contrast to the announced
policy of decentralizing economic management, the law provided for
strengthening central controls over prices.

Until March 1970 there was no unified control over prices. The State
Planning Committee and the Ministry of Finance administered industrial
wholesale prices, and the State Committee for Prices had jurisdiction
over prices of consumer goods and governm