smission. Of the remaining net
supply, almost 70 percent was consumed in industry and construction;
agriculture received only 4 percent; and transport and communications
accounted for little more than 3 percent. Households were allotted about
16 percent of the net electrical supply, and the balance of 7 percent
was consumed in trade, public institutions, and street lighting. The
major industrial users of energy were metallurgical enterprises and the
producers of chemicals and rubber; each of these industrial branches
consumed one-fifth of the energy supply to industry.

Expansion of electric-generating capacity and energy output at rates
planned by the government has been hampered by a chronic lag in new
construction and by inadequate maintenance of existing facilities. The
lack of preventive maintenance and disregard of technical requirements
in the operation of equipment result in frequent breakdowns requiring
major repairs. Such repairs, particularly those involving boilers,
turbines, and transformers, pose difficult problems because of the
shortage of technically qualified repair personnel and ineffective
organization of repair work. Efficiency of operation is also adversely
affected by a high labor turnover and the difficulty of finding
qualified replacements.

The lag in the completion of new power stations, equipment breakdowns,
and insufficient water reserves for hydroelectric stations have caused
frequent power shortages, particularly at peak load hours. Elaborate
official measures have been introduced to regulate the consumption of
electricity and to eliminate waste, including a bonus system for saving
electricity. These measures have not proved sufficiently effective, and
some enterprises have been reported to earn bonuses by the simple
expedient of overstating their requirements in the formulation of the
annual economic plans. The State Inspectorate for Industrial Power and
Power Control, it was stated by officials, was not in a position to
solve the problem of economizing electric power without the active
cooperation of every enterprise, plant, and trade union. Additional
unspecified measures affecting industry were reported to have been taken
in 1973 to reduce peak power loads, and the population was advised to
use electricity more sparingly between 6:00 P.M. and 9:00 P.M.

RAW MATERIALS

In 1970 about 54 percent of the manufacturing industry's output was
based on industrial materials, and 46 percent