Relevance
Government
Finance Statistics (GFS) form the basis for fiscal monitoring in Europe, most
notably for statistics related to the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP). The EDP is established in the Treaty and
specified in the Stability and Growth Pact legislation. The European Union member states report data
related to the EDP to the Commission (Eurostat) which, in turn, is responsible
for providing the data to the Council.
The
methodology for EDP statistics is set out in Council Regulation (EC) No. 220/2014
amending Council Regulation (EC) No. 479/2009 and subsequent legal amendments,
supplemented by further interpretation and guidance from Eurostat, in
particular the Manual on Government Deficit and Debt. Data is also produced in accordance with the
European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010), the EU manual for national
accounts.
Methodological
description
Administrative
sources are used in order to compile government finance statistics. These are the Departmental Accounting System
(DAS) from the Treasury Department, the Financial Data Reporting System (FDRS)
from the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury’s accruals templates from the
Treasury Department. Other ad-hoc
information is also requested from the Ministry of Finance. Data from
the DAS and FDRS is available on a monthly basis, while the Treasury's accruals
templates are available on a quarterly basis.
Data is then compiled in
accordance with principles set out in the ESA 2010 and the Manual on Government
Deficit and Debt. EDP debt is recorded
at nominal value while in the financial accounts the debt instruments are
recorded at market value. Data for
revenue and expenditure are recorded on an accruals basis. Revenues from VAT, Income Tax and Social
Security Contributions are recorded using the time-adjusted cash method in
accordance with Council Regulation (EC)
No. 2516/2000. Following a study undertaken by NSO in 2008,
Eurostat approved a time adjustment of t+1 for VAT and t+2 for Income Tax and
Social Security Contributions.
Accuracy
and reliability of data
All
accounts in the corporate chart of accounts (COA) of DAS are coded in
accordance with the requirements of the ESA 2010 and checks with previous years
and the current economic scenario are undertaken.
Further
checks are conducted by the Public Finance Unit on the Treasury’s accruals
templates. Each quarter any queries observed
are sent to the
Accounting, Methodology, and Compliance Unit (AMCU) in respect of changes in
debtors and creditors greater than €1.0 million.
For
any queries or clarifications on the FDRS templates, contact is either made directly
with the particular Extra Budgetary Unit (EBU) or with the Financial Management
and Monitoring Unit (FMMU) at the Budget Office.
Timeliness
and punctuality of data
EDP
data is reported twice a year: before 1 April and before 1 October for the
preceding four calendar years and a forecast for the current year.
After
this data transmission, on a national level, two ‘General Government Balance
and Debt under the Maastricht Treaty’ news releases are published in April (first
reporting) and October (second reporting).
The publication dates for these
news releases coincide with Eurostat’s press release of the EDP data for the EU
Member States.
Accessibility
and clarity of data
News
releases are published on the NSO’s website as scheduled in the Advance Release Calendar.
Whenever
the EDP Consolidated Inventory necessitates an update, an amended copy is sent
to Eurostat and updated on the NSO’s website.
Data
on government debt and deficit under the Maastricht Treaty is available also on
the NSO’s statistical database (StatDB).
Coherence
and comparability/consistency of data
Data
are comparable across all European Union member states as harmonised European
rules (ESA 2010, and ESA 2010 Manual on government deficit and debt) are
adopted for compiling the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) data.
Consistency is ensured within and between the EDP tables and the European System of Accounts (ESA) transmission programme.
Malta's General Government data is comparable from 1995 onwards. Prior to year 2008 the unit of measure was the Maltese
Lira (Lm) and the conversion rate to euro used was the fixed rate of 0.4293.
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