Fixed Production Assets, part of the enterprise’s productive assets whose value is transferred to the manufactured product in parts as they wear out over a number of circuits. In natural-physical form, fixed assets are the means of labour 143 distinguished by their role in the production process, service life, etc. The total means of labour allotted to a production enterprise (association) form the industrial production apparatus. Several groups of the means of labour are singled out in the composition of the fixed assets in planning and accounting practice: buildings, structures, conveyors, machines, equipment, transport means, tools, production and economic stock, etc. Machines and equipment, being the most active part of the fixed production assets, play an important role in the production process. Falling into this group of the means of labour are: power machines and equipment, measuring and regulating instruments, devices, laboratory equipment, computers and other machines and apparatus. In the USSR, the fixed assets also include the stock and instruments that cost over 50 roubles or whose service life is at least a year. Fixed assets are accounted for in natural and value terms. The means of labour included in an enterprise’s budget are estimated at full initial value, which is made up of the expenses on their purchase, transportation and assembly. Changes in production costs and several other factors lead to a change in the cost of the means of labour resulting in differences in estimating fixed assets. To avoid this, in the USSR the fixed assets are periodically re-estimated according to the replacement value which characterises the value of their reproduction in the latest conditions. Today, the fixed production assets of state and collective farm and cooperative enterprises in the USSR are estimated by the January 1, 1972 replacement value determined on the basis of the wholesale price of industrial products, rates for electricity and thermal power, and on haulage introduced as of July 1, 1967. Fixed assets can also be estimated by the initial and replacement values with deductions for wear and tear. Worn-out fixed assets can be renewed in their former dimensions at the cost of depreciation charges (see Depreciation). At the same time, the accelerated scientific and technical progress creates favourable conditions for using depreciation charges alongside capital investment as a source of expanded reproduction of fixed assets. The Party’s long-term policy of raising the efficiency of social production to the fullest dictates the necessity of using fixed production assets more intensively and raising the output-asset ratio. Side by side with fixed production assets, enterprises have non-production assets, which include apartment houses, and the buildings and equipment for medical, children’s and sports establishments, etc. They create favourable conditions for making production more effective.