Question 11

Does the Executive’s Budget Proposal or any supporting budget documentation present revenue estimates by category (such as tax and non-tax) for a multi-year period (at least two-years beyond the budget year)?
 * a. Yes, multi-year estimates of revenue are presented by category.
 * b. No, multi-year estimates of revenue are not presented by category.
 * c. Not applicable/other (please comment).

Note on revenues
Revenues generally are separated into two major categories: “tax” and “non-tax” revenues. Taxes are compulsory transfers that result from government exercising its sovereign power. The largest sources of tax revenue in some countries are taxes on personal and business income and taxes on goods and services, such as sales or value-added taxes. The category of non-tax revenues is more diverse, ranging from grants from international institutions and foreign governments to funds raised through the sale of government-provided goods and services. Note that some forms of revenue, such as contributions to social security funds, can be considered either a tax or non-tax revenue depending on the nature of the approach to these contributions. Particularly because different revenues have different characteristics, including who bears the burden of paying the tax and how collections are affected by economic conditions, it is helpful when estimates for revenues are disaggregated and displayed based on their sources.

For more information, please refer to the 2001 GFS manual, in particular Appendix 4.

Guidelines
Question 11 evaluates whether revenue estimates are presented for a multi-year period (at least two years beyond the budget year) by “category;” that is, whether tax and non-tax sources of revenue are shown separately.

To answer “a,” the Executive’s Budget Proposal or its supporting documentation must present multi-year estimates of revenues classified by category for at least two years following the budget year in question.

1) Categorizations other than tax/non-tax
We do accept categorization other than tax/non-tax. For example, in oil rich countries we would accept an oil/non-oil categorization provided:
 * It is useful to check EBP and/or EB to see if they use the same categorization, so that budgeted/approved can be compared with actuals.

2) What categories qualify?
Oil vs. non-oil and tax vs. non-tax qualify as categories. If you find a different category (such as current revenues vs. capital revenues), please raise this issue with the team.

Examples:

In Saudi Arabia in OBS 2019, its categories were tax and “other revenues”, and it scored an “a” answer on this question.

Azerbaijan in OBS 2019 labeled its revenues as nonoil, oil, customs, fees, other, and oil fund (a mix of categories and individual sources of revenue), so it scored an “a” answer to Question 71 but a “c” answer for Question 72.

Sierra Leone in OBS 2019 broke down Domestic Revenues into the following categories in Annex 1 (page 1) of the EBP: Income Tax Revenue, Goods and Services Tax, Customs and Excise Department, Mines Department, Other Departments, and Road User Charges & Vehicle Licenses. It scored an “a” answer to Question 11 and a “b" answer for Question 12. The first three categories were considered Tax, and the rest as Non-Tax.

3) Case of Colombia in OBS 2019
What if the nominal GDP figure is in a different document from the %-of-GDP figures?! For Q11, we generally allow %-of-GDP figures as long as there is a nominal GDP figure also presented. But in Colombia, the nominal figure is in the Budget Speech, separated from the %-of-GDP figures, which are in other EBP documents. So if you want to know what the % figures really are, you have to go searching for the nominal figure in another document.

‘’’Resolution’’’: No. . To ensure consistency with other countries, the OBS methodology only accepts percentages if the base GDP value is available in the same document.