Exercise 13. Look through the table which represents “Consolidated Balance Sheet” of Transneft Company.

 

1. Translate the terms into Russian.

2. Discuss the numbers in the table, compare and comment on them.

Consolidated Balance sheet derived from the consolidated financial statements – year ended 31 December 2003

(in millions of Russian roubles, unless otherwise stated)

Assets	31 December 2003	31 December 2002
Non-current assets
Intangible assets
Property, plant and equipment, net	261.185	225.74
Available-for sale investments	1.198	1.380
Total non-current assets	262.918	227.064
Current assets
Inventories, net	7.515	6.051
Receivables and prepayments, net	6.842	2.394
VAT assets	19.501	15.686
Prepaid profit tax	3.234
Available-for-sale short-term investments		-
Cash and cash equivalents	17.219	13.472
Total current assets	55.201	38.303
Total assets	318.119	265.367
Shareholders’ Equity, Minority interests and liabilities
Shareholders’ equity
Share capital
Retained earnings	228.719	200.803
Total shareholders’ equity	229.026	201.110
Minority interests	10.014	8.573
Non-current liabilities
Borrowings	15.952	3.485
Deferred taxes	28.694	28.019
Provisions for liabilities and charges	5.195	2.907
Total non-current liabilities	49.841	34.411
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables	26.236	11.968
Profit tax liabilities
Borrowings	2.432	8.984
Total current liabilities	29.238	21.273
Total liabilities	79.079	55.684
Total shareholders’ equity, minority Interests and liabilities	318.119	265.367

 

UNIT 6

Production and Costs

Lead-in

 

Fill in the spidergram with the words associated with Taxation and Audit

Discuss the following questions:

1. What types of costs do you know?

2. Who manages production costs at enterprises?

3. How production costs affect the final cost of the goods?

4. How to reduce production costs?

5. Which production costs prevail in petroleum industry?

Terms and Vocabulary

entrepreneur to deal with output of goods input to adjust productive resources to vary to gauge marginal product to diminish machinery returns total output rate total production to simplify fixed cost overhead idle leased properties deprecation variable cost total cost marginal cost cost of the lot total revenue marginal revenue cost-benefit break-even analysis incremental

предприниматель иметь дело с выпуск товаров затраты исправлять, налаживать производственные ресурсы различаться измерять предельный продукт уменьшать машинное оборудование возврат, возмещение валовой объем производства ставка общий объем произведенной продукции упростить постоянные затраты накладные расходы неработающий, бесполезный собственность, взятая в аренду возражение, протест переменные издержки совокупные издержки предельные затраты стоимость лота общая выручка предельная выручка рентабельность анализ безубыточности увеличивающийся постепенно

Exercise 1. Read the text and do the exercises

Production and Costs

Whether they are film producers of multimillion-dollar epics or small firms that market a single product, suppliers face a difficult task. Producing an economic good or service requires a combination of land, labour, capital, and entrepreneurs. The theory of production deals with the relationship between the factors of production and the output of goods and services. The theory of production is generally based on the short run, a period of production that allows producers to change only the amount of the variable input called labour. This contrasts with the long run, a period of production long enough for producers to adjust the quantities of all their resources, including capital.

 

The Law of Variable Proportions state that, in the short run, output will change as one input is varied while the others are held constant. The Law of Variable Proportions deals with the relationship between the input of productive resources and the output of productive resources and the output of final products. The law helps answer the question: How is the output of the final product affected as more units of one variable input or resource are added to fixed amount of other resources? Of course, it is possible to vary all the inputs at the same time. Economists do not like to do this, however, because when more than one factor of production is varied, it becomes harder to gauge the impact of a single variable on total output. When it comes to determining the optimal number of variable units to be used in production, changes in marginal product are of special interest.

 

There are three stages of production — increasing returns, diminishing returns, and negative returns — that are based on the way marginal product changes as the variable input of labour is changed. In stage one, the first workers hired cannot work efficiently because there are too many resources per worker. As the number of workers increases, they make better use of their machinery and resources. This results in increasing returns (or increasing marginal products) for the first five workers hired. As long as each new worker hired contributes more to total output than the worker before, total output rises at an increasingly faster rate. This stage is known as the stage of increasing returns. In stage two, the total production keeps growing, by smaller and smaller amount. This stage illustrates the principle of diminishing returns, the stage where output increases at a diminishing rate as more units of variable input are added. The third stage of production begins when the eleventh worker is added. By this time, the firm has hired too many workers, and they are starting to get in each other's way. Marginal product becomes negative and total plant output decreases.

Measures of Costs

Because the cost of inputs influences efficient production decision, a business must analyze costs before making its decision. To simplify decision making, cost is divided into several different categories.

 

The first category is fixed cost — the cost that a business incurs even if the plant is idle and output is zero. Total fixed cost, or overhead, remains the same whether a business produces nothing, very little, or a large amount. Fixed costs include salaries paid to executives, interest charges on bonds, rent payments- on leased properties, and local and state property taxes. Fixed costs also include deprecation, the gradual wear and tear on capital goods over time and through use.

 

Another kind of cost is variable cost, a cost that changes when the business rate of operation or output changes. Variable costs generally are associated with labour and raw materials. The total cost of production is the sum of the fixed and variable costs.

 

Another category of cost is marginal cost — the extra cost incurred when a business producers one additional unit of a product. Because fixed costs do not change from one level of production to another, marginal cost is the per-unit increase in variable costs that stems from using additional factors of production. The cost and combination, or mix, of inputs affects the way businesses produce. The following examples illustrate the importance of costs to business firms. Consider the case of a self-serve gas station with many pumps and a single attendant who works in an enclosed booth. This operation is likely to have large fixed costs, such as the cost of the lot, the pumps and tanks, and the taxes and licensing fees paid to state and local governments. The variable costs, on the other hand, are relatively small. As a result, the owner may operate the station 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a relatively low cost. As a result, the extra wages, the electricity, and other costs are minor and may be covered by the profits of the extra sales.

 

Measures of Revenue

Businesses use two key measures of revenue to find the amount of output that will produce the greatest profits. The first is total revenue, and the second is marginal revenue. The total revenue is the number of units sold multiplied by the average price per unit. The marginal revenue is determined by dividing the change in total revenue by the marginal product. Keep in mind that whenever an additional worker is added, the marginal revenue computation remains the same. If a business employs, for example, five workers, it produces 90 units of output and generates $ 1,350 of total revenue. If a sixth worker is added, output increases by 20 units, and total revenues increase to $ 1,600. To have increased total revenue by $ 300, each of the 20 additional units of output must have added $ 15. If each unit of output sells for $ 15, the marginal or extra revenue earned by the sale of one more unit is $ 15 for every level of output. Marginal revenue can remain constant but businesses often find that marginal revenues start high and then decrease as more units are produced and sold.

 

Marginal Analysis

Economists use marginal analysis, a type of cost-benefit decision making that compares the extra benefits to the extra costs of an action. Marginal analysis is helpful in a number of situations, including break-even analysis and profit maximization. In each case the costs and benefits of decisions that are made in small, incremental steps. The break-even point is the total output or total product the business needs to sell in order to cover its total costs. A business wants to do more than break even, however. It wants to make as much profits as it can. But, how many workers and what level of output are needed to generate the maximum profits? The owner of the business can decide by comparing marginal costs and marginal revenues. In general, as long as the marginal cost is less than the marginal revenue, the business will keep hiring workers. When marginal cost is less than marginal revenue, more variable inputs should be hired to expand output. The profit-maximizing quantity of output is reached when marginal cost and marginal revenue are equal.

Garry Clayton