Statistics Netherlands
Division of Business Statistics
Support and Development Department
P.O.Box 4000
2270 JM Voorburg
The Netherlands
Mission report, Vilnius 15-16 October 2001, Assessment of the implementation of Prodcom
Nino Platteel
Project number: / 103096/01BPA number: / -
Date: / 30-09-18
- Introduction
The Statistical Office of Lithuania has four Directorates; each of them managed by a Deputy Director General. One of these Directorates comprises amongst others the Divisions for Industry Statistics and for Enterprises Statistics (see also organisation chart in Annex A). The Division for Industry Statistics is responsible for Prodcom, Short Term Statistics and annual statistics. As a matter of fact all branch statistics on industry. These statistics do also include industrial activities of enterprises classified elsewhere, in a manner of speaking kind of activity statistics, though not based on KAU’s identified as such in the register. The division employs 11 people.
The divisions for Enterprise Statistics originates from Balance Sheet statistics and deals with the structural surveys (SBS) for all activities except the financial sector. This Division employs 7 persons.
Data entry and the first editing steps are carried out by the public company “statistical centre” mentioned in the organisation chart.
The Lithuanian statistical office furthermore has 48 territorial offices that in the framework of business surveys are involved in the mailing and collection of questionnaires.
The Republic of Lithuania Law on Statistics in its present version was adopted in December 1999. It defines the general principles of the organisation of official statistics, the rights and duties of respondents as well as the rights and duties of the statistical institute. According to the Law on Statistics the Work Programme of Official Statistics includes a list of surveys, their periodicity, their purpose, methods, deadlines and so on. It is published in an official journal.
Before the discussions started there was a short introductory meeting with Mrs. Vilija Lapéniené, first deputy Director General and Mrs. Daiva Norkevičiené, Head of the Interstate Co-operation and Integration to EU Division. The main discussions took place with Mrs. Violeta Kunigéliené, the Head of the Industry Statistics Division and staff members of that Division. The discussions were concluded with a meeting with the Director General Mr. Šemeta.
- Register
Mrs. Dalia Mačiutiené, Head of the Business Register Section (which belongs to the Legal Unit Register Service), participated in the meeting on registers. The Statistical Office deals with both the Administrative and the Statistical Register. The Administrative Register might be moved to the Ministry of Justice. The main source for the Statistical Register is the administrative register which contains all enterprises and similar organisations carrying out an activity excluding farmers farms. It should be noted that for the purpose of registration new enterprises tend to list many possible activities. According to a new law they also can register without indicating their activity. For correct identification in the Statistical register therefore all newly registered units receive in about half a year a questionnaire asking for the type of activity, the type of ownership, the number of employees and similar basic information. Sources for updating register information are twofold. External sources are the balance sheets and declarations from tax inspections and the number of employees from the social security organisations. Internally data from customs declarations and from statistical surveys provide update information. Both the custom declarations and the data on social security are important information sources for the status of activity. Size class information is updated by means of employment data as annual averages coming from a survey of the division for employment statistics, but also by means of data from surveys of the various branch Divisions. If no statistical sources are available information coming from the social security organisations is used.
At present the register contains about 67,000 active enterprises, corresponding to Legal Units. The introduction of the Local Kind of Activity Unit is planned for the end of this year.
In the year 1995, via a governmental decree, NACE has become the official activity classification. For that purpose Lithuania has developed an extension with two additional digits, of which only the 5th is used at present (6th digit = 0). Though part of the units in the register are classified according to the 6-digit Lithuanian version of NACE, for statistics on active units a maximum of 4-digits are used.
The table below shows the number of active enterprises in the NACE sections in industry, broken down by NACE 2-digit division and by size (1-1-2001).
NACE / < 20 employees / ≥ 20 employees / Total10 / 7 / 13 / 20
11 / 1 / 3 / 4
14 / 11 / 21 / 32
15 / 1021 / 445 / 1466
16 / 1 / 1
17 / 268 / 90 / 358
18 / 579 / 258 / 837
19 / 88 / 28 / 116
20 / 1199 / 240 / 1439
21 / 59 / 18 / 77
22 / 671 / 91 / 762
23 / 2 / 2 / 4
24 / 76 / 34 / 110
25 / 249 / 57 / 306
26 / 490 / 84 / 574
27 / 21 / 7 / 28
28 / 369 / 117 / 486
29 / 185 / 68 / 253
30 / 22 / 1 / 23
31 / 142 / 17 / 159
32 / 46 / 20 / 66
33 / 122 / 25 / 147
34 / 18 / 6 / 24
35 / 50 / 25 / 75
36 / 496 / 103 / 599
37 / 24 / 13 / 37
40 / 38 / 67 / 105
41 / 18 / 47 / 65
Total / 6272 / 1901 / 8173
Physical persons are registered separately. In order to carry out an activity they have to acquire a license from the tax authorities. Such licenses are linked to specific activities. The license information is available for the statistical office.
- Scope and coverage of the surveys
The population of the annual commodity surveys is based on the register situation per 1 November of a given year. The survey covers the activities of the NACE sections C and D. It should be noted that in the register these NACE sections also includes enterprises that do not actually carry out an industrial activity themselves. For example an office representing a foreign tobacco producer will be classified in NACE 16, manufacture of tobacco products. On the basis of an indication for the type of enterprise it is however possible to make a distinction between “real industrial” enterprises and other ones. The surveys on industry include the following types of enterprise:
Code / Type of enterprise11 / State companies
13 / Municipal enterprises
21 / General partnerships
22 / Commandite partnerships
31 / Closed joint stock companies
32 / Joint stock companies
36 / Specialised joint stock companies
37 / Specialised closed joint stock companies
41 / Agricultural communities
71 / Co-operative partnerships/companies
81 / Individual enterprises without the status of a legal entity
82 / Individual enterprises with the status of a legal entity
Representatives of foreign companies, code 52, are not included. A full list of the possible types of enterprise is given in Annex B. Of the ones included in the survey, types 11–71 are covered exhaustively and individual enterprises (81 and 82) are included in the survey insofar their output in the previous year exceeded 500,000 Litas. The output data in the register is available from the tax declarations. The survey population is completed with non-industrial enterprises carrying out an important industrial activity. A table presenting the structure of the population of the annual commodity survey can be found in Annex C. The products of NACE section E are observed via several questionnaires that collect detailed information for the energy balance sheets.
Starting with the reference year 1996 the commodity survey was based on the Combined Nomenclature. For that purpose the statistical office used a national version of the CN, i.e. extended by means of two additional digits. For an important part the additional detail ensue from the commodity classification used before 1996. They are important for preserving the time series. Based on the year 1999 a conversion key CN–Prodcom has been created and starting with the survey on the year 2000 both Prodcom and CN are being used. The additional detail created in the CN obviously appears equally in Prodcom. Further detail on the Lithuanian Prodcom list can be found in the next paragraph.
The monthly commodity survey covers all limited liability enterprises in NACE sections C, D and E having 20 or more employees. Individual enterprises are included when they manufacture important products. The same applies for non-industrial enterprises. That way farms with significant foodstuff production are included as well as enterprises in forestry with an important manufacture of wood products. In total the monthly survey covers about 1100 enterprises. More details on the structure of the population of the monthly survey can be found in table 2 of Annex C.
The survey on the reference year 1997 was the first one using CN as commodity classification, however in general at a much lower level of detail than the annual survey. With the survey on 2001 Prodcom was introduced as well.
- Product list
In 1998 in the framework of a Phare project on classifications the Lithuanian version of the Prodcom list was created based on the edition 1998. For the purpose of the additional national breakdowns 2-digits have been added to the standard 8-digit Prodcom code. The Lithuanian product has 268 additional headings at the 10-digit level, primarily in the food industry and the woodworking. By way of example Annex D shows a few pages of the Prodcom list for the food industry. This example shows (see headings 15.33.22.90.20 and next) that two levels of breakdown at national level exist. The aggregated heading (ending at .20) was introduced for the monthly survey, whereas the detailed ones (.21 and .22) are used in the annual survey.
The Lithuanian Prodcom list has been sent to all enterprises with 20 and more employees and to all regional offices. It is furthermore available on the Internet site of the Lithuanian Statistical Office. The custom authorities have made a translation of the explanatory notes to the HS/CN in the Lithuanian language. However the web site of the statistical office does not provide a link to these notes.
In an official journal published in March 2000 Prodcom was indicated as the official classification for industrial products. The signature of the Director general in the publication of the list itself confirms the official status of the classification.
Due to lack of resources there is no system yet for annually updating the Prodcom list. However one of the subprojects in the national Phare project deals with the implementation of Prodcom. In the framework of that subprojects the Lithuanian office is working on the translation of the Prodcom list 1999 – 2003. The project also involves further linguistic improvement of the list.
- The production survey
The annual commodity survey uses a blank questionnaire. An English translation of it is given in Annex E. Respondents themselves have to describe and classify the products they manufacture. For that purpose they have received a copy of the Lithuanian version of Prodcom, the so-called Manufactured Products and Services Classificator. Whenever needed they receive assistance from the statistical office. The survey form has separate columns for the description of the commodity, for the Prodcom code and for the CN code. In the column for the Prodcom code reference is made to the web site where the Prodcom list can be found.
The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part is for reporting production on own account, i.e., production with own raw materials. The second part asks for information on work done, being production on contract (materials supplied by the customer) and industrial services. The value of production on contract that way is the fee received. It should be noted that production on contract in this part of the questionnaire only relates to production for customers in Lithuania. Production for customers abroad, for which raw materials have been imported, should be included in the first part of the questionnaire and hence the value is to be the real market value. As can be seen from the translation in Annex E the questionnaire states specifically hat the total sales value of all products should correspond to the sales value reported in the annual branch survey. The same applies for the total of work done in the second part of the commodity questionnaire. This value too should correspond to the relevant item of the annual branch survey.
In the first part, the one for production on own account, total production in volume has to be reported for each product as well sold production in volume and value. Enterprises have to report separate data on production sold within the country. The second part for production on contract does not have a separate column for total production. Furthermore the separate columns for domestically sold production are not needed. Both parts ask additionally for the volume of production in the previous year.
The value collected in the commodity survey is excluding VAT and excluding all other indirect taxes. Packaging costs and cost of transportation carried out by the producing unit are included. As the occasion arises discounts are deducted from turnover. Subsidies are not included.
In general the measurement units follow the ones indicated by Prodcom. In total 517 codes are reported in a different measurement unit than the one required by Prodcom. This number includes national breakdowns as well as a number of codes that are reported in various units deviating from the Prodcom one. At the level of Prodcom itself only 331 headings are involved. First of all 42 headings that require two measurement units according to Prodcom are collected in one unit only. Of them 23 refer to NACE 17.2, 17.4 and 17.5 where kg and m2 are required and where only m2 are collected. Another 14 headings belong to NACE 17.4 where instead of kg + p/st only 1000 pieces are collected. The last 5 headings belong to NACE 29.11 (p/st+Kw) and 35.11 (p/st + GT resp. ct/l). Of the remaining 289 headings with a deviating measurement unit the ones occurring most frequently are summarised in the table below.
Deviation / Number / Comments(1000) Pieces instead of Kg / 102 / Primarily in metal products
1000 Liters instead of Kg / 34 / For example in metal packaging
(1000) Square meters instead of Kg / 23 / In paper and in other mineral products
(1000) Cubic meters instead of Kg / 23 / In quarrying of stone and other mineral products
Kg instead of Pieces / 18 / Mostly in the metal industry
Tons instead of Kg effect, Kg N or Kgact. subst. / 18 / Kg act. subst. Was deleted from Prodcom since 1999.
The monthly commodity survey is basically the same as the annual one. A translation of the questionnaire is provided in Annex F. It has also separate parts for production for own account and work for third parties. The monthly survey does not ask for the breakdown of sold production into the domestic market. Production furthermore has to be reported for the current month, the previous month and the corresponding month in the previous year. Taking into account the lack of detail with respect to the product classification the monthly survey cannot actually make a significant contribution to Prodcom.
Since 1995 the results of the monthly commodity survey are not used any more for the calculation of the production indices. These indices are based on deflated turnover. The purpose of the monthly survey is to follow the short-term development in the production of the most important industrial products.
- Representativeness
The branch information, including industrial activities carried out by non-industrial enterprises, could be used to calculate the representativeness of the present annual commodity survey. Such calculation has not yet been carried out. However the number of active enterprises in the register (see the table at page 4), is roughly 8000 in NACE 10-37, of which less than 1800 have 20 or more employees. Since the annual survey covers more than 4100 units, it does include an important number of enterprises with less than 20 employees. As a matter of fact more than one third of these enterprises are covered by the annual commodity survey. It can therefore be expected that representativeness will in general be sufficient. The high representativeness at national level results from the need for a regional breakdown in commodity statistics. Reliable statistics at the level of ten counties can only be compiled with when a representative part of the enterprise population in each of the counties is involved in the survey. Hence the overall coverage at national level is quite high.
Though Lithuania is the largest of the three Baltic States, expectations are that its industry will in an important number of activities represent less than 1% of the Community total. Because the data need to be collected for national purposes, the so-called 1% rule (article 3, paragraph 4 of the Prodcom regulation) will probably not be used to obtain exemption for a Prodcom survey.
The 1% rule could be used in relation to the quarterly Prodcom obligations. According to the data on 1998 the most important activity groups in the area of Textile- and Clothing industry and in Chemical industries are NACE 17.1, 17.2, 17.5, 17.7, 18.2, 18.3, 24.1, 24.4 and 24.5. Unfortunately a comprehensive calculation of the share of Lithuanian production for these groups in European totals is not possible because of the incompleteness of the data available from New Cronos. However already the incomplete data makes it clear that the most important sectors in Lithuania involved in quarterly Prodcom statistics are largely below 1% of the Community total. The table below gives the results of the comparison between Lithuania and the EU15 totals.
NACE / European production value, 1998 in 106€ / Comments / Lithuanian production value, 1998 in 106 € / In %17.1 / 15296.9 / Excl.Ge and Gr / 38.0 / 0.25
17.2 / 21484.5 / Excl.Ge and Gr / 132.9 / 0.62
17.5 / 21811.2 / Excl.Ge and Gr / 21.6 / 0.10
17.7 / 12333.3 / Excl.Ge and Gr / 67.9 / 0.55
18.2 / 62431.1 / Excl.Ge, Gr, Ir and Lu / 312.0 / 0.50
18.3 / 824.0 / Excl.Ge, Gr and Lu / 5.0 / 0.60
24.1 / 123934.9 / Excl.Ge and Gr / 192.7 / 0.16
24.4 / 89625.7 / Excl.Ge, Gr and Lu / 28.5 / 0.03
24.5 / 39166.0 / Excl.Ge, Gr and Lu / 7.7 / 0.02
It could be added that the NACE groups mentioned in the table constitute resp. 94, 100 and 82% of the corresponding NACE 2-digit divisions.
- Data collection
The regional offices carry out the mailing of the questionnaires. For that purpose they receive in January the list of enterprises involved together with the questionnaires. The completed commodity questionnaire is to be returned to the regional office before the first of March. The entire process of collecting questionnaires and reminding non-respondents is the responsibility of the regional office. They also do the first checking, i.e., correct classification, completeness and so on. The complete set of completed questionnaires is then sent to the central office, where the Public Company “Statistical Centre” (see organisation chart in Annex A) is charged with data entry. All in all four persons in this centre are dealing with data entry of the monthly and annual industrial statistics. The process of data entry sometimes includes some additional checking and correction, when necessary in consultation with the staff of the Division for Industry Statistics.