The Budget documentationThe range of documents produced over a fiscal year

Grant Cleland and Luke Roper , October 2008

The Budget

Overview

The range of Budget documents produced over a fiscal year

Further details of each document, including examples of where to find information

Questions

What are the main Budget documents?

Minister’s Executive Summary; Speech; Fiscal Strategy Report; Budget Economic & Fiscal Update B.2 & B.3

The Estimates of Appropriations B.5

Information Supporting the Estimates of Appropriations B.5A Vols 1 – 10

Supplementary Estimates of Appropriations B.7

In election years, Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update B.16

Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand B.11

Minister’s Speech and Executive Summary B.2 & B.3

Released on Budget day.

This publication contains the Finance Minister’s Budget speech, the Executive Summary, along with the Fiscal Strategy Report, and the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update.

The Budget speech contains those new policies that the Government of the day especially wants to highlight.

The Executive Summary provides more detail on those Budget initiatives mentioned in the speech.

Budget Economic & Fiscal Update (BEFU) B.2 & B.3

Released on Budget day, the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) focuses on the Government as a consolidated whole.

It is a treasure-trove of information. Normally it is our first point of call when trying to locate Budget-related information.

If a new policy has a major fiscal impact, it is most likely to be included in the BEFU.

The BEFU has very useful core Crown expenditure tables at the back.

Recent BEFU’s also have included a time series of fiscal and economic indicators (useful for comparisons over a period of time).

Core Crown versus Total Crown

What is core Crown and what is total Crown?

Core Crown represents the revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities of the Crown departments, Offices of Parliament, the Reserve Bank, the New Zealand Super Fund (NZS Fund), and the Government Superannuation Fund (GSF).

Total Crown includes the core Crown figures, plus those of State-Owned Enterprises, and Crown Entities, less any internal transactions (to ensure against double counting).

The Estimates of Appropriations B.5

Appropriations are for specific purposes, and are grouped into Votes (there were 69 Votes in Budget 2008). These are arranged alphabetically in the Estimates of Appropriations.

The Estimates provide the core details of the appropriations that Parliament is being asked to approve.

Appropriations by period type (annual, multi-year, and permanent) are separated out in this year’s Estimates.

Vote Statistics

Information Supporting the Estimates of Appropriations B.5A

There are ten volumes arranged by sector (groupings of related Votes). Each sector publication is broadly associated with an individual Select Committee.

The ten sectors are as follows: • Vol.1 Economic Development and Infrastructure Sector • Vol.2 Education and Science Sector • Vol.3 Environment Sector • Vol.4 External Sector • Vol.5 Finance and Government Administration Sector • Vol.6 Health Sector • Vol.7 Justice Sector • Vol.8 National Identity Sector • Vol.9 Primary Sector • Vol.10 Social Development Sector

Information Supporting the Estimates of Appropriations B.5A

For each Vote, there is a summary of the Vote, which is a plain-language explanation on what the appropriations in the Vote will be spent on.

An analysis of trends in the Vote is included, showing the last five years, the current year, and the upcoming three years.

A table of new initiatives by appropriation follows, making it possible to reconcile new spending to where the funding is being appropriated.

Trends in Vote Parliamentary Service

Vote: Parliamentary Service

Budget 2008 documents available online

The Budget documents are available online on the Treasury’s website.

This allows for quick searching of the PDF documents using the ‘Find’ function.

http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/2008

Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand B.11

The annual Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand are published following the completion of a fiscal year (ended 30 June). These statements detail that year’s actual figures, and compares these with those budgeted.

The statements include a useful historical information table, of the main revenue and expenditure indicators.

The statements include useful tables regarding SOE and Crown Entity financial information.

Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand B.11

Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update B.16

In election years, the Government is required to release a Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (Pre-EFU) prior to election day.

This publication provides an update of the economic and fiscal forecasts provided in the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update of that year.

It allows for the “opening of the books”, and ensures all political Parties have access to the same economic and fiscal information.

Questions ?

Easy