"So far we have not received documents from the Communications Ministry," Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrei Sharonov said Monday.
He said the delay was caused by a continued "discussion with the power structures' officials."
Mr. Sharonov said the privatization of Svyazinvest would not be postponed because of the current delay. The government intends to privatize the company in 2005.
As soon as the agreement is completed, the procedure to remove Svyazinvest from the list of strategic enterprises will begin, Mr. Sharonov said.
Asked if the starting price of the state's block of Magnitogorsk Iron shares (17.8%) had been set, Mr. Sharonov said that he did not know anything about it. At the same time, he noted that the starting price of the state's shares would be announced shortly.
"If we want to sell Magnitogorsk Iron before the end of the year," he said, "the starting price must be announced one of these days."
The ministry has proposed introducing tax credits for investments in scientific developments, he said.
"Benefits are needed to stimulate investments in scientific developments," he said at a roundtable meeting on the Federal Antitrust Service's competition policy.
He said the idea was to reduce income taxes for scientific research and research and development.
Mr. Sharonov said that there were similar benefits earlier but they were abolished after income tax was reduced to 24%.
"In general, a benefit is a bad genre for us," he said, "but we believe that it is well-warranted in this case."
According to him, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry was working with the Finance Ministry on the issue.
