The reporting by the reporting companies is based on a cash basis and not on an accrual basis, therefore the companies must only enter the payments made in the reporting year, i.e. January 1 – December 31, 2017, in line with the reporting principle of the Compatibility Act/ 1953. MOF reports only payments (i.e. revenues) received in 2017.

Reconciliation differences

The reconciliation of the reported financial data by the companies and MOF can result in reconciliation differences which can be categorized as cleared and not cleared differences.

1. Cleared difference

The following types of cleared differences are recognized:

• Timing differences

Differences in the reconciliation occurred due to the time span between the time the payments are made by a company and the time these payments are received by the Government.

• Exchange rate differences

The receipts by the Government in foreign currencies are converted to SRD at the daily exchange rate at the time of receipt. Therefore, in addition to receipts in SRD, the Government’s reporting sheets also include receipts in USD converted to SRD. This last category of receipts results in exchange rate differences in the reconciliation, if the exchange rate at the time of receipt of a payment by the State deviates from the exchange rate on the day of payment made by the company.

• Settlement differences

Non-cash transactions based on settlements of a liability of a company towards the Government with a claim on the Government are considered as payment(s). As these settlements are non-cash transactions, MOF does not report these settlements as cash payments but as transaction receipts. To the extent reconciliation differences occur between MOF and the relating company this will be investigated and explained exclusively.

• Other differences

All the reconciliation differences other than the abovementioned differences are categorized as other differences.

2. Uncleared differences

These are reconciliation differences that could not be cleared by MOF and/or the reporting company. This could be due to e.g. classification by MOF based on information received from the financial departments within MOF-which does not match with the classification by the company, or if MOF cannot confirm or trace the amounts received from the companies.

All the reconciliation differences listed above are reported, investigated and clarified by the reporting companies and/or Ministry of Finance. Remaining reconciling items, if any, are reported separately.