Thus, in his words, the growth of revenues is based, mainly, on the growth of wages. Wages, in Mr. Gref's words, grew by 14.1% on the average.
At the same time, the Economic Development and Trade speaks against the automatic increase of wages at enterprises.
"I am against automatic increase of wages, as it will lead to mass redundancies at enterprises or enterprises' withdrawal to the illegal sector of the economy," Mr. Gref said at a government session on Thursday. In his opinion, most problems in this connection may face light industry enterprises. "The effect may turn out reverse," the minister believes.
German Gref believes that the adoption by the State Duma (lower house of Russian parliament) of a package of social laws, including the law on replacement of privileges with monetary compensations, will positively tell on the economy.
"The final contribution of the whole package of laws on reformation of the social sphere to the growth of the GDP is hard to determine yet, but it's evident that they will give a positive effect in the mid-term and long-term prospects," the minister said at the government session.
"First of all, these measures will give development to the regional economy and finances, will make the situation on local markets transparent and will give an impetus to the whole number of enterprises that earlier pursued a non-transparent policy when making accounts with the state," said the minister.
In Mr. Gref's opinion, such branches as transportation and communications will get new development, while the social reform will give an impetus to the development of regions and the economy in general.
Russian Vice Premier Alexander Zhukov, who chairs the government meeting, also believes that the law on monetary compensations will contribute a lot to fight against poverty. "Then the least well off people will get an additional payment, which will make it possible for them to increase their revenues," Mr. Zhukov said.
The vice premier is holding the regular government session on Thursday, as Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov is on a two-week leave from Monday.
