1218.0 - Standard Economic Sector Classifications of Australia (SESCA), 2002  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 13/09/2002   
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Contents >> Glossary

Glossary

ABN Unit
Is an Australian Business Register unit, and is used by the ABS in the ATO maintained population as the statistical unit for all ABS collections. In most cases, the ABN unit represents the legal entity. However, the ATO has allowed government and nonprofit institutions to register their sub-legal entities for ABN's.

ABS business register
A list of businesses used by the ABS for creating survey frames for ABS business surveys. Its population is made up of units from both the ABS maintained population and the ATO maintained population, and includes employing and non-employing businesses and organisations.

ABS maintained population
The population of businesses on the ABS business register where the ABN unit is not suitable for ABS statistical requirements. These are typically large, complex and diverse groups of businesses. The ABS maintains its own units structure and classification information through direct contact with business.

Ancillary corporation
A wholly owned subsidiary corporation with productive activities strictly confined to providing services to the parent corporation or other ancillary corporations in the same enterprise group.

ATO maintained population
The population of businesses on the ABS Business Register where the ABN unit will be used for ABS statistical purposes. Classification information from the ATO and the Australian Business Register is used to identify the characteristics of these businesses.

Australian business register
The list of business entities registered for an ABN with the Australian Business Registrar, and is managed by the ATO. This list is maintained by the Registrar and is accessible to other government agencies and to businesses.

Business Entity
A unit that has registered for an ABN. This includes legal entities and sub-legal entities.

Centre of economic interest in Australia
A legal entity has a centre of economic interest in Australia when there exists a fixed or mobile location, dwelling, place of production, or other premises within Australia's economic territory, on or from which the legal entity engages, or intends to engage in economic activities and transactions, on a significant scale, for a year or more.

Corporation
A legal entity that:

  • is created for the purpose of producing goods and services for the market
  • may be a source of profit or other financial gain to its owner(s)
  • is collectively owned by shareholders who have the authority to appoint directors responsible for its general management.

Direct investment enterprise
An incorporated or unincorporated enterprise resident in Australia in which an investor (referred to as a direct investor), who is resident in another economy, owns 10% or more of the ordinary shares or voting power (of an incorporated enterprise) or the equivalent (of an unincorporated enterprise).

Direct investor
An enterprise or an individual, resident in Australia, which owns 10% or more of the ordinary shares or voting power or the equivalent of an enterprise (incorporated or unincorporated) which is resident in another economy.

Economically significant prices
Prices that have a significant influence on the amounts that producers are willing to supply or on the amounts that purchasers wish to buy (sometimes also called 'market prices').

Economic territory of Australia
The geographic territory administered by the Australian Government within which persons, goods and capital circulate freely. It includes the airspace, territorial waters, and continental shelf lying in international waters which Australia has jurisdiction, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island, and Australian embassies, consulates, military bases and similar enclaves located in other countries.

Enterprise
Is an institutional unit comprising (1) a single legal entity or business entity; or (2) more than one legal entity or business entity within the same enterprise group and in the same institutional subsector (i.e. they are all classified to a single SISCA subsector).

Enterprise group
A unit covering all the operations in Australia of one or more legal entities under common ownership and/or control. It covers all the operations in Australia of legal entities that are related in terms of the current corporations law (as amended by the Corporations Legislation Amendment Act 1991), including legal entities such as companies, trusts and partnerships. Majority ownership is not required for control to be exercised.

Financial auxiliary services
Services, delivered on an agency basis, which facilitate financial intermediation without requiring the service provider to engage in financial intermediation.

Financial corporation
A corporation or quasi-corporation that is mainly engaged in financial intermediation or provision of auxiliary financial services.

Financial corporations sector
An institutional sector comprising resident corporations, quasi-corporations, and market NPIs mainly engaged in financial intermediation or financial auxiliary services, and market NPIs serving financial corporations.

Financial intermediation
A productive service in which the service provider incurs liabilities on its own account for the purpose of acquiring financial assets by engaging in financial transactions on the market.

Financing units
In the hierarchy of the ABS units model, the upper group of statistical units, which (1) own and finance producing units, and (2) comprise enterprise groups, enterprise and legal entities.

General government sector
An institutional sector comprising resident government units and non-market NPIs that are controlled and mainly financed by government units.

Government unit
A legal entity, which:
  • is established by legislation, regulation or government administrative action
  • is financed mainly from taxation or government transfers
  • exercises legislative, judicial, or other government authority over other units within a given area
  • mainly provides its services free or at economically insignificant prices.

Holding company
A corporation with no significant productive activity other than to control and direct a group of subsidiary corporations.

Household
A small group of persons who share the same living accommodation, who pool some, or all, of their income and wealth and who consume certain types of goods and services collectively, mainly housing and food.

Households sector
An institutional sector comprising resident households, including resident household unincorporated enterprises.

Household unincorporated enterprise
An unincorporated enterprise that is owned by a household and does not qualify as a quasi-corporation and is therefore included in the household sector.

Institutional unit
In SNA93, the statistical unit that is used in institutional sector classification and is defined as an economic entity that is capable, in its own right, of owning assets, incurring liabilities and engaging in economic activities and in transactions with other entities (see also Legal entity).

Jurisdiction
The jurisdiction of a unit is the government (the Commonwealth or an individual State or Territory Government) which controls the unit or, if the unit is a local government authority, the government that administers the legislation under which the unit was established.

Legal entity
In the ABS business register, the statistical unit which (1) is the first unit classified to institutional sector, (2) is the ABS unit closest in concept to the SNA93 institutional unit, and (3) is defined as a unit covering all the operations in Australia of an entity that possesses some or all of the rights and obligations of individual persons or corporations; or that behaves as such, in respect of those matters of concern for economic statistics.

Level of government
A three-way classification of public sector units based on whether the role, function and geographical extent of the units' political authority is national, State/Territory or Local.

Market NPI
A non-profit institution that either:
  • mainly disposes of its output at economically significant prices
  • is established, financed or controlled by corporations and mainly provides services to member corporations.

Market prices
See Economically significant prices above.

Market production
Production of output which is sold at prices that are economically significant.

Multi-jurisdictional
The classification given to a public sector unit that cannot be allocated unequivocally to a single jurisdiction.

Non-financial corporation
A corporation or quasi-corporation that is mainly engaged in market production of goods and/or services other than financial intermediation or auxiliary financial services.

Non-financial corporations sector
An institutional sector comprising resident corporations, quasi-corporations and market NPIs mainly engaged in producing goods and non-financial services, and NPIs serving non-financial corporations.

Non-financial public sector
The combination of the general government sector and all public non-financial corporations.

Non-financial services
Services other than financial intermediation and financial auxiliary services.

Non-market NPI
A non-profit institution that disposes of its output free or at prices that are not economically significant.

Non-market production
Production of output which is disposed of free or at prices that are not economically significant.

Non-profit institution
A legal entity which:
  • is created for the purpose of producing goods and services
  • is not authorised to be a source of income, profit or other financial gain to the units that establish, control or finance the legal entity.

Non-resident unit
A legal entity with a centre of economic interest outside the economic territory of Australia.

Private sector
The combination of the household sector, the NPISH sector and all resident corporations and quasi-corporations not controlled by the general government sector.

Producing units
In the hierarchy of the ABS units model, the lower group of statistical units which (1) are owned and financed by financing units, (2) are so-named because they exercise a degree of control over production activities, and (3) comprise type of activity units and ABN based units.

Public financial corporation
A resident financial corporation or quasi-corporation that is controlled by a unit of the general government sector.

Public non-financial corporation
A resident non-financial corporation or quasi-corporation that is controlled by a unit of the general government sector.

Public sector
The combination of the general government sector,and all resident corporations and quasi-corporations controlled by the general government sector.

Quasi-corporation
An unincorporated legal entity that:
  • is created for the purpose of producing goods and services for disposal at economically significant prices
  • has a de facto relationship to its owner, akin to that of a corporation to its shareholders, including availability of a complete set of accounts
  • is owned by a non-resident unit and is deemed to be a resident unit because it engages in a significant amount of production in the economic territory of Australia for one year or more.

Resident unit
A legal entity that has a centre of economic interest within the economic territory of Australia.

Rest of the world sector
An institutional sector comprising all non-resident units that engage in transactions with resident units, hold financial claims against resident units, or have financial claims against them that are held by resident units.

Statistical units
Units about which statistics are tabulated, compiled or published.

Sub-legal entity
Represents the proportion of a legal entity that has been allowed to register for an ABN. This type of ABN registration is only found in government units and nonprofit institutions.

Subsidiary corporation
A corporation that is more than 50% owned by another corporation.

Type of Activity Unit
Is comprised of one or more business entities, sub-entities or branches of a business entity within an Enterprise Group and can report production and employment data for similar economic activities.

Unincorporated enterprise
An entity that engages in market production but does not qualify as a quasi-corporation and is included in the statistics as part of the government unit, household or NPI that owns the enterprise.



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