Statement 8: Financial Reporting Standards and Budget Concepts

The Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998 requires that the Budget be based on external reporting standards. Accordingly, the major external standards used in the Budget are the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) accrual Government Finance Statistics (GFS) framework and Australian Accounting Standards (AAS), including Australian Accounting Standard No. 31 Financial Reporting by Governments (AAS 31). The major fiscal aggregates (including the fiscal and underlying cash balances) are based on the accrual GFS framework.

The Charter also requires that departures from applicable external reporting standards be identified. These are disclosed in Appendix A to Statement 2, the introduction to Statement 9 and Note 1 in Statement 10.

---