a component of national economic planning under socialism. Financial planning is based on indicators in the national economic plan; in turn, it influences the formulation of the plan, establishing the optimum apportionment of financial resources and concentrating the resources in the most important areas and in the areas of greatest efficiency.

Financial planning has a number of tasks. It must determine the volume and sources of finance for economic development, accelerated progress in science and technology, and the fullest possible response to the population’s material and cultural needs. It must also identify reserves for the additional growth of production and monetary accumulation, ensure that material, labor, and monetary resources are used efficiently, promote uniformity in the system of financial plans, and see that ruble control over economic and financial activities of enterprises and organizations is applied to ensure their fulfillment of financial plans. Financial planning seeks to improve the efficiency and structure of social production. It is closely linked to financial control over enterprises (associations) and organizations.

Various elements in the financial system draw up their own financial plans, among them the balances of incomes and expenditures of state enterprises, associations, and ministries, the financial plans of kolkhozes, other cooperative organizations, and social and public organizations, and the estimates of institutions receiving budgetary allocations. Other plans include the state budget of the USSR, the state social insurance budget, the financial plan of state property and personal insurance, and the consolidated financial plan of the national economy. The consolidated plan is designed to balance the resources of all financial plans and facilitate coordination between the most important subdivisions of the national economic plan.

Financial planning is being improved by giving greater consideration in economic plans to social needs and to meeting these needs with given expenditures of labor, material, and financial resources, by ensuring that economic growth is balanced, by raising the scientific level of financial planning, and by developing long-range financial planning.