The Australian Loan Council, comprising Commonwealth, State and Territory Treasurers, has agreed to the implementation of the Accrual Uniform Presentation Framework (UPF). The new agreement provides the framework for uniform reporting of accrual-based financial information in budget documentation.
As part of the 9 May 2000 Budget, the Commonwealth will publish detailed budget information consistent with Accrual UPF reporting requirements in Budget Statement 8 of Budget Paper No. 1. The Commonwealth's budget-time Loan Council Allocation estimate for 2000-01, also prepared on the basis of the Accrual UPF, will be published in Budget Paper No. 3.
It is expected that most jurisdictions will be able to conform to the Accrual UPF beginning with their 2000-01 budgets, although they have until the 2002-03 budget year to fully implement reporting on an Accrual UPF basis.
The UPF is a key feature of Loan Council arrangements for the oversight of public sector borrowing in Australia. These arrangements emphasise transparency in public sector finances and the role of financial market discipline. The Accrual UPF will ensure that these arrangements remain relevant and effective in the environment of accrual budgeting and financial reporting.
The original UPF was negotiated by Commonwealth, State and Territory leaders in 1991, and subsequently revised and updated by the Loan Council in 1997. It is a voluntary agreement, designed to ensure that governments publish a common core of fiscal information in their budget papers. In light of the adoption by governments of accrual reporting, and the shift by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to an accrual Government Finance Statistics (GFS) framework, the Commonwealth, States and Territories have developed a revised UPF based on accrual GFS reporting standards.
The Accrual UPF is available from the Treasury internet site, at
http://www.treasury.gov.au/publications