Statement 8: Trends in Public Sector Finances
Contents
Part I: Overview 8-3
Part II: Fiscal balance 8-5
Part III: Cash surplus 8-8
Part IV: Net debt and net worth 8-14
Net debt 8-14
Net worth 8-17
Net interest payments 8-18
Appendices
Appendix A: Size and structure of the public sector 8-19
Appendix B: Non-financial public sector - supplementary cash tables 8-20
This Statement examines trends in finances for the Commonwealth and State/local levels of government and the consolidated public sector and, therefore, provides a broader context in which to consider developments in the Commonwealth's Budget.
Part I: Overview
The information in this Statement is consistent with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Government Finance Statistics (GFS) reporting framework for the public sector.
Data are presented both by level of government and institutional sector. `Level of government' refers to the distinction between the Commonwealth and State/local governments. When combined, the Commonwealth and State/local governments and universities are referred to as the `consolidated public sector'. Institutional sectors -that is, general government, public non-financial corporations (PNFCs) and the non-financial public sector - are outlined in Figure 1 and Statement 10, External Reporting Standards and Budget Concepts.
Commonwealth, State and Territory governments present common fiscal information in their budget reports as required by the Accrual Uniform Presentation Framework (UPF), agreed by the Australian Loan Council in March 2000. The majority of States and Territories now report on an accrual UPF basis, while Tasmania and the Northern Territory are expected to make the transition from cash UPF reporting in their 2002-03 budgets.
The Commonwealth revenue, receipts, expenses and payments measures included in this Statement differ from ABS GFS measures by treating goods and services tax (GST) collections by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) as State tax revenue rather than Commonwealth tax revenue paid to the States as grants. This approach reflects the clear policy intent of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Reform of Commonwealth-State Financial Arrangements, which is that the GST is a State tax collected by the Commonwealth in an agency capacity. The Commonwealth has no discretion over the expenditure of GST collections, as all revenue is passed to the States. However, because the GST is levied by the Commonwealth for constitutional reasons, the ABS regards it as Commonwealth revenue. The Commonwealth accrual UPF tables presented in Statement 11, Government Finance Statistics Statements are consistent with the ABS GFS standards, including the classification of GST revenue.
This Statement addresses recent trends in Commonwealth and State/local accrual measures (revenue, expenses and fiscal balance), cash measures (receipts, payments and cash surplus), and balance sheet measures (net debt, net worth and net interest payments). These measures are discussed in greater detail in Statement 10, External Reporting Standards and Budget Concepts.
Appendix A of this Statement outlines the size and structure of the non-financial public sector, including the relative contributions of the Commonwealth and State/local governments. Appendix B provides Commonwealth and State/local historical data on receipts, payments, cash surplus, net interest payments and net debt.
Figure 1: Institutional structure of the Public Sector
