Increased number of border inspections

Definitions

Name and topic: Name: Norwegian Customs and Excise - StatRes (discontinued)
Topic: Public sector

Responsible division: Division for External Trade Statistics

Definitions of the main concepts and variables

Input measured in NOK:

Own production is defined as the sum of compensation of employees, use of goods and services and use of fixed assets. Figures concerning use of fixed assets, i.e. depreciation and opportunity cost, are not available for Norwegian Customs and Excise. Therefore, this element is excluded from own production.

Compensation of employees is defined as the total remuneration payable to the employees, including social security contributions. Reimbursements are subtracted. An estimated amount, due to lack of pension contributions to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, is included in compensation of employees.

Purchase of goods and services covers the value of utilized goods and services used in the production. This is comparable to the fiscal budget's post Purchases that are not utilizes in the production, are not part of the purchase concept. Such purchases enter into the category of transfers.

Estimated contributions to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund . Norwegian Customs and Excise does not contribute directly to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, where its employees are members. These contributions, and contributions on behalf of a number of other government agencies, are covered by a block grant from the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform to the pension fund. To compensate for this, compensation of employees (excluding social security contributions) in Norwegian Customs and Excise are adjusted up 15 per cent.

Transfers comprises current unrequited payments to the private sector.

Net acquisition of non financial capital comprises acquisition less sale of fixed assets such as buildings, machinery and equipment. Net acquisition of land is also included in this category.

Input measured in contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves:

Contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves is defined as the sum of the number of full-time jobs and part-time jobs converted to full-time equivalents, excluding man-years lost due to doctor-certified absence and parental leave. See section 3.6

Other indicators:

Border inspections includes inspections of travellers, conveyances and goods on conveyances, from 2009 also goods in stock and by mail- and courier shipments. Border controls are carried out in order to prevent illegal importation and exportation of goods.

Border controls with hits comprises every check where illegalities are uncovered.

Serious contraventions in relation to border inspections are smuggling attempts of consignments with value in excess of a certain limit.

Economic audits are a common term used in StatRes for checks of excise duty declarations, post-clearance audits and checks of declared goods.

Checks of excise duty declarations are checks of periodic tax statements reported to Norwegian Customs and Excise from dutiable companies.

Post-clearance audits are accounts audits carried out after a tax assessment.

Checks of declared goods are importation and exportation checks of declared consignments to ensure that they are correctly declared.

Economic audits with hits comprises every check where illegalities are uncovered.

Serious contraventions in relation to economic audits are violations committed with intent or the result of gross negligence. In addition, the tax evasion must excess NOK 40 000.

Taxes collected by Norwegian Customs and Excise are recorded in the Central government's fiscal account. Taxes are divided into four groups: customs duties, value-added tax on imports, motor vehicle taxes and other taxes such as excise on tobacco, alcohol, electric power and emissions of CO2 and NOX.

Control claims are defined as tax claims uncovered as a result of the agency's audits.

Standard classifications: Input measured in NOK:
Expenditures are classified on the basis of IMF's Government Finance Statistics Manual 2001 (GFSM2001), with few exceptions.

Administrative information

Background

Background and purpose

The objective of StatRes is to present statistics on central government input, the results in terms of activities and services, and the outcomes of the input. The purpose of such statistics is to give the general public and the authorities improved knowledge of state-run activities. StatRes is developed upon commission by the Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church affairs.

The StatRes project was started in 2005 and the first figures were published in October 2007. The Norwegian Customs and Excise was included in StatRes in 2008, with time series back to 2005.

Users and applications: StatRes’ target group are users of statistics with some knowledge of and interest in central government activities who require on information on resource use, activities, services and outcomes of state activities. Such users could be the general public, the media, politicians, pupils and students. StatRes provides the authorities with information which are supplements to other information used in the governing of central government activities.

Coherence with other statistics

The StatRes indicators should be viewed in context of Statistics Norway’s specialized statistics on similar areas and the statistics compiled by the Norwegian Customs and Excise. The indicators for resource input are especially developed by Statistics Norway for use in StatRes, and may in some cases differ from similar figures presented in other accounting reports for the Norwegian Customs and Excise.

Input measured in NOK:
Norwegian Customs and Excise is part of the Central Government sector in Statistics Norway's National Accounts, and the fiscal account is the sole data source. Some transactions are classified differently in StatRes compared to the National Accounts, but the deviations are insignificant.

Input measured in contracted man-years:
Statistics Norway does not publish other particular statistics on employment in the central government sector today, but the employees are included in Statistics Norway’s general register-based employment statistics where the employees and their contracted working hours are only counted in the enterprise where the employee performs her/his main position. StatRes also includes second jobs, in addition to 1) inclusion of employees more than 74 years old, 2) inclusion of employees on a short-term stay in Norway and 3) subtraction of doctor-certified absence and parental leave.

Employees in the central government sector are also published in NA, by full-time equivalent persons , which are nearly the same as contracted man-years (in StatRes, contracted man-years adjusted for long-term leaves are published). The number of full-time equivalent persons in central government in NA is nearly identical to the figures in the register-based employment statistics, but the estimation methods and sources are different. The NA also publish figures for total hours worked , based upon a complex estimation system. The NA only publish figures on aggregated levels

Legal authority: The Statistics Act §§ 2-2 and 3-2.

EEA reference: No.

Production

Population: The statistics comprises the entire Norwegian Customs and Excise, which it is divided into a central directorate and six local customs regions.

Data sources and sampling

Input measured in NOK:
The accounting figures for most of the published units are based on data reported to the Norwegian Government Agency for Financial Management (SSØ) in connection with the preparation of the state accounts (Report no. 3 to the Storting).

Input measured in contracted man-years:
Register-based employment statistics in Statistics Norway are based on individual register data from several registers. Information related to employees and employment is collected from the NAV State Register of Employers and Employees, the End of the Year Certificate Register, the Tax Register (the Directorate of Taxes), and payroll registers. The Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities in Brønnøysund and Statistics Norway’s Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises provide data on industries and sectors for enterprises and underlying establishments. NAV’s register of participants in labour market initiatives, recipients of parental benefits and doctor-certified absence are also included. The employment statistics is therefore based on a number of different sources. Statistics Norway has developed a system for common utilization of these sources.

Data regarding activities, services and output:
Figures concerning boarder controls, seizures, economic audits, tax collection and applications are transmitted directly from Norwegian Customs and Excise to Statistics Norway.

The statistic is based on total counting.

Collection of data, editing and estimations

Input measured in NOK:
Data is transmitted electronically from the Norwegian Government Agency for Financial Management to Statistics Norway.

Input measured in contracted man-years:
Extracts from several registers (see 3.2).

Data regarding activities, services and output:
Data is transmitted electronically from Norwegian Customs and Excise to Statistics Norway.

Input measured in NOK:
Indicators based on accounting data are compared to the corresponding figures in the Central Government's fiscal account.

Input measured in contracted man-years:
The three most central registers concerning production of the statistics follow this procedure for control and revision: The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration conducts an annual control of the NAV State Register of Employers and Employees. Statistics Norway controls that enterprises with more than one establishment have separate numbers for each, and that the employees are registered with the correct establishment. Statistics Norway also controls the NAV State Register of Employers and Employees by comparing it with the End of the Year Certificate Register etc. Some kinds of errors are also corrected directly in the basic data for the employment statistics. Further, the contracted man-years adjusted for long-term leaves are checked against the wage costs mentioned above, in addition to the basic data for the wage statistics from payroll registers.

Data regarding activities, services and output:
Control and revision are carried out by Norwegian Customs and Excise.

Input measured in NOK:
See section 4.1.

Input measured in contracted man-years:
Contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves, is estimated by Statistics Norway as the number of full-time jobs and part-time jobs calculated as full-time equivalents adjusted for doctor-certified sickness absence and parental leave. Man-years are estimated as a percentage of ordinary full-time jobs (37.5 hours per week). The estimation of man-years is based on the contracted working hours at a reference week (the third week of November in the statistics year) which is considered to be representative for the whole year. The register information on contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves will not be identical to the actual number of man-years worked, since the statistics does not capture overtime work, self-reported sickness absence, vacations, and other deviations from contracted man-years, except for parental leave and doctor-certified absence. For employees with more than one central government working relation in the reference week, contracted man-years adjusted for long-term leaves are estimated for each working relation and linked to each of the state enterprises where the persons are employed.

Confidentiality: Not relevant

Comparability over time and space

Contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves:
The man-year figures involve the Norwegian Customs and Excises own employees. It may vary whether the enterprise choose to purchase their services, or to produce by their own employees. The accounting figures show both wage costs related to own employees and purchases of corresponding goods and services.

Collection og taxes, by type of tax
From 2011, tax revenue from gasoline and diesel goes in the group ’other taxes’ and no loger ’taxes on motor vehicles’.

Seizures of currency:
From 2011, implementation of new regulations on administative penalties regarding non-declaration of currency lead to more seizures.

Border inspections:
From 2009, number of border inspections also includes inspections of goods in stock and by mail- and courier shipment.

Border inspections and number of uncovered serious contraventions:
From 2009, the definition of serious contravations is somewhat changed.

Accuracy and reliability

Sources of error and uncertainty

Input measured in NOK:
Norwegian Customs and Excise keeps accounts according to the Appropriation Regulations of May 26th 2005 and is audited by the Office of the Auditor General. Errors in accounting data are therefore considered to be negligible.

StatRes aims at measuring central government input in NOK. This is not straightforward, as central Government accounting is cash based, not accrual based. Some accounting transactions can thus be attributed to the wrong period, as seen from a resource use perspective. The quality of annual input indicators are still considered satisfactory.

As a consequence of cash based accounting, the fiscal account units do not write off their costs of non-financial capital. Consequently, the costs of capital and imputed depreciation might be underestimated. This is nevertheless regarded as a minor problem for The Norwegian Customs and Excise, as they largely rent their buildings. Their costs of non-financial capital will as a consequence appear indirectly, as rental costs under purchase of goods and services.

Processing errors may occur during the estimation of the figures at Statistics Norway. For instance, according to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund premiums, the same percentage mark-up is applied to all enterprises, while the pension commitments are in real life different between enterprises. The deviations from 15 per cent are though small, according to Statistics Norway’s calculations.

Input measured in contracted man-years:
The data quality concerning minor and sporadic employment will be poorer than for employees registered in the NAV State Register of Employers and Employees. For persons who are identified as employees on the basis of the End of the Year Certificate Register, the employment is not dated precisely. Some of these undated contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves, can however be dated based on information from other registers. For others, information about salary size is used as a criterion for defining whether the person is employed or not. Accordingly, there is some uncertainty about whether the persons included from the End of the Year Certificate Register actually were working in the enterprise at the time (the third week of November).

Not relevant (total counting).

The CSS file did not download correctly, the screen reader does not support CSS, or your version of Internet Explorer is too old for this website.

Norwegian Customs and Excise - StatRes (discontinued), 2009

About the statistics

Definitions

Administrative information

Background

Production

Accuracy and reliability

Find more figures

The CSS file did not download correctly, the screen reader does not support CSS, or your version of Internet Explorer is too old for this website.

Breadcrumbs

Norwegian Customs and Excise - StatRes (discontinued), 2009

Content

About the statistics

Definitions

Administrative information

Background

Production

Accuracy and reliability

Find more figures