COVID Module Question 2

Did the government publish, as part of published budget documents and information about emergency fiscal policy packages or elsewhere, information on updated revenue, expenditure, deficit, and debt projections?

Guidelines
This question is asking about whether the government published information about the overall budget — revenues, expenditures, deficits, and debt — to show how it has been affected by the pandemic and the associated economic slowdown. Policy actions taken by government, such as expanded expenditures on health or income support, will have a direct effect on the budget. But the pandemic will also have indirect effects, such as lower revenues as the pandemic-induced recession results in people and businesses paying lower taxes. Only by presenting estimates of the budget as a whole is it possible to fully assess the impact of the pandemic on the budget.

Revenues are typically presented in two main categories: “tax” and “non-tax”. 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.

Expenditures are typically presented according to three main classification systems: administrative, functional, and economic. Each classification system has different advantages and answers a different question: who spends the money (administrative); for what purpose is the money spent (functional); and what is the money spent on (economic). Expenditures can also be shown by program, a more detailed presentation than the three main classifications. There is no standard definition for the term “program;” however, for the purposes of answering the question, researchers should treat the term program as meaning any level of detail below an administrative unit — that is, any programmatic grouping that is below the ministry, department, or agency level.

For expenditures, the question also asks whether a specific “COVID tag” has been given – that is, an additional classification system that clearly identifies expenditures related to the emergency fiscal policy package. Such a tag would allow for monitoring and assessing COVID-related spending throughout the process, separate from other government policies.

The deficit reflects the net effect of the budget’s revenues and expenditures, and is an approximation of the country’s borrowing requirements for a fiscal year. The debt reflects the cumulative total of borrowing the government has undertaken and plans to undertake in the budget year. Thus, the debt estimate would reflect the projected total debt burden at the end of the budget year, including any additional borrowing required to cover the costs of the emergency package. (Note that specific questions about borrowing related to the emergency fiscal policy package are asked in the section “details of sources of financing.”)

Finally, the question asks whether the presentation includes a includes a comparison between the revised projections and the originally approved ones for the current fiscal year as well as a narrative explaining the revised revenue and expenditure projections, providing a discussion for instance of the differences between original and revised projections, and how these are linked to the impact of the pandemic. Given the complexity of the COVID crisis, which has both health and economic dimensions, such an explanatory narrative can help citizens understand better the various objectives and rationales of the government’s policy response.

Tick boxes: ''Please check the boxes of the items that appear in the relevant documentation. If none of the items are presented, please check ‘None of the Above’. In the comment box, please provide a detailed citation for each item selected below as described in the assessment directions as well as any additional details.''


 * ☐  Total revenues
 * ☐  Revenues by category (tax vs. non-tax)
 * ☐  Individual sources of revenue
 * ☐  Total expenditures
 * ☐  Expenditures by administrative unit
 * ☐  Expenditures by functional classification
 * ☐  Expenditures by economic classification
 * ☐  Expenditures by program
 * ☐  “COVID tag” for expenditure
 * ☐  Deficit
 * ☐  Government debt (total at end of budget year)
 * ☐  Comparison between originally approved and updated projections
 * ☐  Explanatory narrative
 * ☐  None of the above

1) Should researchers only reference documents produced by the executive?
No. Researchers can use any documents produced by any public entity to answer the questions, at least to start with. We can then, when analyzing the results, decide whether these "count" or not. If you have any questions or concerns regarding a particular document, please bring it to the team.

2) On referring to documents other than those used to introduce or describe the emergency fiscal policy package
In some countries, researchers have referred to updated macroeconomic information or aggregte revenue/spending information published in documents other those used to introduce or describe the EBFF. These include EBPs, IYRs, and MYRs, which were published between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2020. The question is whether we should accept the information included in these reports and under what circumstances. We are willing to accept updated assumptions published in the next key budget documents that is published. If, however, the government skips updating its assumptions in the next document in the line-up and only does it in some subsequent document, we will not give them credit. The rationale is that if the government regularly publishes budget information during the year, then it makes sense that they would use the publications of those documents as an opportunity to provide information related to the emergency fiscal package.