Methodology

23.59    The supply and use tables for the Australian economy provide the framework in which transport activity across the economy can be identified. Moreover, they provide the means of calculating transport gross value added (GVA) and gross domestic product (GDP).

23.60    In broad terms, the ATEA involves reorganising the information in the supply and use tables in a way that is consistent with the ASNA framework and respects the same industries and classifications. In doing so, the ATEA introduces four new In-house transport industries within the supply and use framework – one for each of the four primary modes of transport: Road, Rail, Air and Water.

23.61    The supply of each of these new industries is compiled by identifying the inputs, both intermediate and primary, used in the production of In-house transport by non-transport industries. Each of these new industries only produces a single output, which is In-house transport relating to the specific mode.

23.62    These new In-house transport industries thus explicitly capture supply and use relating to In-house transport activity.

23.63    Estimates of inputs used in the production of In-house transport are identified from the supply-use tables in three components:

• Transport related inputs (TRIs) such as fuel, insurance and repairs, are inputs considered essential to transport activity. In the main, these inputs are used solely in the production of transport. An exception is fuel products, which have significant use for other purposes, such as the running of plant and machinery.
• Non-transport related inputs (NTRIs) are other intermediate inputs which are used in the production of In-house transport, but are not specific to transport. These may include inputs such as accounting services and office supplies.
• Primary inputs (value added components) include compensation of employees, gross operating surplus, and other net taxes on production.

23.64    For the ATEA, the new In-house transport industries are assumed to use the same input structures as those used in producing For-hire transport. NTRIs are imputed based on the ratios of TRI to NTRI in the corresponding For-hire industry, recognising that input structures vary between modes of transport produced.

23.65    Primary inputs, or value-added components of In-house transport, are calculated using the ratio of each value-added input to total intermediate inputs of the corresponding For-hire transport industry. Value-added components.

23.66    To complete the picture of transport's contribution to the economy, an estimate of taxes less subsidies on products is required. However, no such adjustment is necessary for In-house transport, as the input-based approach to measurement ensures its supply and use are already valued consistently. In principle, some net taxes on products for secondary production of transport within In-House transport is payable, however it has not been estimated in this account due to its relative insignificance.

23.67    Taxes and subsidies on any products produced by the For-Hire industries are allocated based on the contribution of each industry to the output of that product. For example, the ‘Rail transport’ industry (ANZSIC subdivision 47) is the sole producer of the product ‘Rail passenger transport services’, so the full values for both taxes and subsidies on this product are allocated to this industry.

23.68    In-house transport activity comprises of three distinct components:

• In-house transport activity for own use (ancillary production);
• In-house transport supplied to another institutional unit (secondary production); and
• Transport margins.

23.69    As In-house transport estimates in the ATEA have been built up from inputs related to transport activity, they represent all In-house transport activity, regardless of whether it has been supplied to another institutional unit or not. However, where transport activity is undertaken as secondary production, and services have been supplied to another institutional unit, output relating to this activity will already be captured in the supply and use tables. Thus, In-house transport output would be overstated with the introduction of the new transport products.

23.70    To prevent this overstatement, existing secondary production of transport services and transport margins are removed from the industries in which the activity occurred.

23.71    On the use side, an adjustment is also made to shift the total value of the transport margins to each of the new In-house transport products – Road, Rail, Air and Water.