FINAL BUDGET OUTCOME
1999‑2000

CIRCULATED BY
THE HONOURABLE PETER COSTELLO, M.P.
TREASURER OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, AND
THE HONOURABLE JOHN FAHEY, M.P.
MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
FOR THE INFORMATION OF HONOURABLE MEMBERS

SEPTEMBER 2000

  Commonwealth of Australia 2000
ISBN 0 642 74039 9
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Foreword
The Final Budget Outcome 1999‑2000 has been prepared in a manner consistent with the Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998. The Charter requires that, inter alia, the Government provide a final budget outcome report no later than three months after the end of the financial year. Consistent with these requirements, this report encompasses Commonwealth general government fiscal outcomes for the 1999‑2000 financial year; and is based on external reporting standards.
The Final Budget Outcome 1999‑2000 is the first Commonwealth Final Budget Outcome to be prepared on an accrual accounting basis. Therefore, a final outcome is presented for the fiscal balance for the first time, in conjunction with the underlying cash balance. Prior to this year, the Final Budget Outcome was prepared on a cash accounting basis consistent with the methodology used in the Commonwealth budget at that time.
Part I contains the general government sector budget aggregates for 1999‑2000 together with an analysis of the 1999‑2000 final budget outcome. This includes summary analysis of revenue, expenses, net capital investment, the balance sheet (net debt and net worth) and cash flows.
Part II presents the 1999‑2000 Commonwealth general government sector primary financial statements in accordance with AAS31 Financial Reporting by Governments.
Part III presents the Commonwealth financial statements for 1999‑2000 in accordance with the Australian Bureau of the Statistics (ABS) Government Finance Statistics (GFS) framework. This data covers the general government sector as well as the Commonwealth public corporations sectors.
Part IV provides details for 1999‑2000 on Federal Financial Relations, updated from that contained in the 2000‑01 Budget Paper No. 3.
Historical budget and net debt data are presented in Appendix A. Expense data on a functional and sub‑functional basis are presented in Appendix B.

Contents
Foreword	iii
Part I:  Commonwealth Budget Outcome	1
Overview	1
Revenue	3
Expenses	3
Capital	5
Net debt and net worth	6
Cash flows	8
Attachment A:  External reporting standards	11
Attachment B:  Reconciliation of GFS and AAS31 aggregates	13
Attachment C:  Budget concepts	17
Part II:  AAS31 Financial Reporting by Governments 
Primary Financial Statements	21
Statistics, concepts and notes to the financial statements	25
Part III: Government Finance Statistics Statements	33
Loan Council allocation	46
Part IV:  Federal Financial Relations	49
General revenue assistance	49
Revenue replacement payments	51
Local government general purpose assistance	53
Specific purpose payments	54
Appendix A:  Historical fiscal data	69
Appendix B:  Expenses by function and sub‑function	75
Acronyms	79

List of tables

Part I:	Commonwealth Budget Outcome	1
Table 1:	General government sector budget aggregates	1
Table 2:	Expenses by function — GFS basis	4
Table 3:	Commonwealth general government sector net worth and net debt	5
Table 4:	Summary of Commonwealth general government sector cash flows	7
Table 5:	Selected differences between AAS31 and GFS reporting standards	13
Table 6:	Reconciliation of GFS and AAS31 revenue and expenses	14
Table 7:	Reconciliation of AAS31 net operating result and fiscal balance	15
Part II:	AAS31 Financial Reporting by Governments
Primary Financial Statements
Table 8:	Statement of revenues and expenses for the Commonwealth general government sector — AAS31	22
Table 9:	Balance sheet for the Commonwealth generalgovernment
sector — AAS31	23
Table 10:	Statement of cash flows for the Commonwealth general government
sector — AAS31	24
Note 1:	External reporting standards — AAS31	25
Note 2:	Reconciliation of cash	26
Note 3:	Income tax	27
Note 4:	Indirect tax	28
Note 5:	Interest and dividends	29
Note 6:	Other sources of non‑taxation revenue	29
Note 7:	Employee expenses	30
Note 8:	Suppliers expenses	30
Note 9:	Depreciation and amortisation	30
Note 10:	Grants	31
Note 11:	Total non‑financial assets	31
Note 12:	Employee liabilities	32
Note 13:	Grants payable	32
Note 14:	Taxes	32

Part III:	1999‑2000 Government Finance Statistics Statement
Table 11:	General government sector operating statement	34
Table 12:	General government sector balance sheet	35
Table 13:	General government sector cash flow statement	36
Table 14:	Public non‑financial corporations sector operating statement	37
Table 15:	Public non‑financial corporations sector balance sheet	38
Table 16:	Public non‑financial corporations sector cash flow statement	39
Table 17:	Non‑financial public sector operating statement	40
Table 18:	Non‑financial public sector balance sheet	41
Table 19:	Non‑financial public sector cash flow statement	42
Table 20:	Public financial corporations sector operating statement	43
Table 21:	Public financial corporations sector balance sheet	44
Table 22:	Public financial corporations sector cash flow statement	45
Table 23:	Commonwealth Loan Council Allocation for 1999‑2000	47
Part IV:	Federal Financial Relations
Table 24:	Level of financial assistance grants	49
Table 25:	Financial assistance grants to the States	50
Table 26:	National competition payments	51
Table 27:	Addition to financial assistance grants from the absorption of untied identified road grants	51
Table 28:	Revenue replacement payments to the States	52
Table 29:	General purpose assistance for local government	53
Table 30:	Specific purpose payments to the states, repayments of
advances and interest payments	55
Table 31:	Specific purpose payments direct to local government authorities	68
Appendix A:  Historical fiscal data
Table A1:	Commonwealth general government sector cash revenue, outlays and surplus	71
Table A2:	Commonwealth general government sector cash taxation revenue, non‑taxation revenue and total revenue	72
Table A3:	Commonwealth general government net debt
(as at end of financial year)	73
Table A4:	Commonwealth net worth by sector (as at end of financial year)	73
Table A5:	Commonwealth general government sector GFS revenue,
GFS expenses and fiscal balance	74
Table A6:	Commonwealth PNFC GFS revenue, GFS expenses and fiscal balance	74
Table A7:	Commonwealth NFPS GFS revenue, GFS expenses and fiscal balance	74
Appendix B:  Expenses by function and sub‑function
Table B1:	Commonwealth general government expenses
by function and sub‑function	76

Notes
(a)	The following definitions are used in this paper:
•	‘real’ means adjusted for the effect of inflation;
•	real growth in expenses is measured by the non‑farm Gross Domestic Product deflator; and
•	one billion is equal to one thousand million.
(b)	Figures in tables and generally in the text have been rounded. Discrepancies in tables between totals and sums of components are due to rounding:
•	estimates under $100,000 are rounded to the nearest thousand;
•	estimates $100,000 and over are generally rounded to the nearest tenth of a million;
•	estimates midway between rounding points are rounded up; and
•	the percentage changes in statistical tables are calculated using unrounded data.
(c)	For the budget balance, a negative sign indicates a deficit while no sign indicates a surplus. 
(d)	The following notations are used:
	NEC/nec	not elsewhere classified
	AEST	Australian Eastern Standard Time
	‑	nil
	..	not zero, but rounded to zero
	na	not applicable (unless otherwise specified)
	nfp	not for publication
	$m	$ million
	$b	$ billion

(e)	References to the ‘States’ or ‘each State’ include the Territories, because from 1993‑94 onwards, general purpose funding has been on the same basis for all jurisdictions. The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are referred to as ‘the Territories’. The following abbreviations are used for the names of the States, where appropriate:
NSW	New South Wales
VIC/Vic	Victoria
QLD/Qld	Queensland
WA	Western Australia
SA	South Australia
TAS/Tas	Tasmania
ACT	Australian Capital Territory
NT	Northern Territory