Havana, Apr 5 (IANS/EFE): Cuban state-owned firms may use up to 50 percent of post-tax profits for R&D and employee incentives, Communist Party daily Granma said, reporting on a recent meeting of the Council of Ministers.

"Companies, once they've fulfilled their commitments to the state and the established requirements, may use after-tax profits to create funds for development, investment and motivating workers," Finance Minister Lina Pedraza said.

Retained profits, therefore, "may be used to increase working capital (and funds) for investment, development, research and training, as well as to pay workers based on their performance", the daily said Thursday.

Pedraza said the decision stems from a clause in the economic-adjustment plan approved in April 2011 at the 6th Communist Party Congress.

President Raul Castro presided over Tuesday's Council of Ministers meeting, which was centered on the island's economic policy and the 2014 budget.

Castro called for "considering and reconsidering" and "periodically reviewing" the government's measures to correct possible errors, and urged his administration not to be deterred by the "obstacles that may emerge" as Cuba works to "modernize" its socialist economic model.

The Council of Ministers also analyzed a first group of 126 non-farm private cooperatives presented for its approval.

A law enacted in December extended this type of organizational model to sectors other than agriculture.