1. Philippe Stauffer 29th IARIW Conference Session 7 A SNA (2)
A. Braakmann, Th. Forster: Experiences in Europe in Updating the SNA: The Government Sector
Swiss Federal Statistical Office
Philippe Stauffer
29th IARIW Conference
Session 7 A SNA (2)

2. 4 issues are investigated
Government owned assets and capital services
Accrual accounting of taxes
Public-private partnerships
Granting and activation of guarantees

3. 1. Government owned assets and
Capital services
AEG recommendation Introduce a return on capital used for non-market production.
Impact - Higher value-added, operating surplus, disposable income, consumption expenditure of GVT. - No impact on Net lending/borrowing of GVT.
Implementation issues 1. Appropriate data on capital stock of non- market producers.
2. Appropriate rate of return.
Outcomes - 19 European countries cannot compile appropriate rate of return due to lack of data.
- Lack of harmonised price indices.

4. 2. Accrual accounting of taxes
Various procedures to calculate tax revenues on accrual basis:
1. Model estimations
2. Shifting data
3. Cash data = accrual data.
Choice of method linked to characteristics of tax.
Results basically sound.

5. 3. Public-private partnerships (PPPs)
Central question: allocation of PPPs.
Allocation may be based on risk distribution between the public and private partners.
Eurostat identified three categories of risk.
Implementation problems:
1. Complexity of contracts
2. No obligation to report
3. Marked lack of information at local level
4. Enormous work-load
Issue should not be presented in extensive way in updated SNA

6. 4. Granting and activation of guarantees
Current treatment - Granting not recorded. - Call of guarantee Financial accounts
- If amount cancelled Capital transfer
Proposal - Liability when guarantee is granted. - Recommended use of insurance model.
Implementation issues - Proxies have to be used.
- Absolutely no information on some items. - Tricky treatment when central government is reimbursed for past guarantees.
Proposal Use a simpler approach.

7. Questions to the authors (A. Braakmann, Th. Forster):
Impact of real rate of return for capital services : Is govern-ment a special case, or are these problems also valid for the economy as a whole ?
Magnitude of change (+/-0,5%): the changes to GDP growth over time are mainly due to changes in the real rate of return. What about the annual profile ?
PPP’s: Why not adopt a convention ?
3. Granting/activation of guarantees: Doesn’t government provide any service at all ? What is the true nature of the asset of general government (“claim against the importer”)?