Document Index Budget Paper 1 Budget Statement 9

Appendix E: Historical Commonwealth General Government Cash Deficit Data

This appendix provides historical data and forward estimates for Commonwealth general government underlying outlays, revenue and underlying cash deficit.

Table E1 provides details of the cash budget aggregates for the period 1962-63 to 2002-03. Table E2 provides details of tax, non-tax and total cash revenue for the period 1962-63 to 2002-03.

Classification differences and revisions, as well as changes to the structure of the budget, can impact on comparisons over such an extended period. Factors which affect the comparability of budget aggregates between years include:

• classification differences in the data relating to the period prior to 1976-77 mean that data for the earlier period may not be entirely consistent with that for 1976-77 and later years;
• adjustments in the coverage of agencies included in the accounts of the different sector;
• the removal of Central Banking Authorities from the General Government sector in 1998-99, and subsequent backcasting to account for this change;
• the 1998-99 reclassification of fees and fines out of the broader taxes, fees and fines category used in previous years;
• transfers of taxing powers between the Commonwealth and the States;
• other changes in financial arrangements between the Commonwealth budget sector, Commonwealth non-budget sector agencies and the State/local government sector; and
• changes in arrangements for transfer payments where tax concessions or rebates are replaced by payments through the social security system. This has the effect of increasing both cash revenues and outlays as compared with earlier periods, but not changing cash balances. Changes in the opposite direction (tax expenditures replacing outlays) reduce both cash outlays and revenue.

While approximate adjustments can be made to identify trends in budget aggregates on a generally consistent basis, the further back this analysis is taken, the less manageable that task becomes.

A detailed discussion of the comparability of budget aggregates since 1962-63 is provided in Statement 5 of Budget Paper No. 1, 1992-93.

Table E1: Commonwealth General Government Underlying Outlays, Revenue and Underlying Deficit

1. Following recent changes in the Australian National Accounts standards, the underlying deficit measures in this table, from 1998-99 onwards, include payments by the Commonwealth in respect of accumulated public trading enterprise (PTE) superannuation liabilities. Estimates prior to 1998-99 exclude these payments.

Table E2: Commonwealth General Government Taxation Revenue, Non-taxation Revenue and Total Revenue

5. Estimates