National accounting and national accounts concepts have very strong
links to business accounting and business accounts concepts, and economic
theory. The current trend in national accounting work is to carry out
the task based on a framework which functions as an integrated general purpose
statistical information system. The principal constraints to
this approach are data availability which is a function of the standard
and serviceability of the country's national statistical system, and
general conventional accounting principles. It is submitted that one of
the important properties that a system of national accounts should
possess is inherent flexibility in order to allow such a system to
respond sensitively to developments in economic theory and specialized
needs/demands.
Even though the development of certain national accounting principles
can be traced back to the seventeenth century, national accounting
generally is a twentieth century invention, with the development of the
SNA as a very major breakthrough. One of the SNA's most valuable contributions
is its provision of a consistent and comprehensive framework in terms of
national accounting concepts, definitions and principles.
The application of the conventional national accounting principles
to Tonga and other developing countries has been confronted with many
conceptual and statistical problems. The existence of imperfect national
price systems in developing countries has led many critics to question
the validity of national income estimates for such countries. It has
been submitted that such imperfection of national price systems has been
essentially a function of constraints on commodity and factor movements.
It is argued however that many such restrictions cannot be applied
with significant force to the case of Tonga and that there exists great
validity and usefulness in making national income estimation.
Non-market portion of total production in the economy of Tonga is
significant. Its estimation for national accounting purposes is faced
with the conceptual problems of setting appropriate boundary of production
and imputation. The recommendations of the SNA with regard to the
former are endorsed for national accounting practice in Tonga with
special attention to transactions such as the unilateral provisions of
free and/or partially paid services by Tongans to government and church
authorities. Due to the predominantly agricultural character of the
Tongan economy and the existence of a partial subsistence sector, certain
conceptual problems arising from the need to make clear distinctions
between production and consumption, and saving and investment in accordance
with the Keynesian framework are bound to prevail with regard to national
accounting in the Kingdom. There are also the problems associated with
any attempt to distinguish the various factor shares of national income.
Recommendations and comments concerning possible means of minimizing
these problems or perhaps putting such, problems into some balanced
perspective, are presented.
Statistical problems faced with national accounting work in Tonga
are generally associated with the inadequacy and unreliability of basic
national accounting statistics, and the shortage of appropriate material
and human resources. While most of the statistical problems can be
substantially alleviated by more liberal direction of resources to the
process of data collection and national income estimation, some of the
statistical problems like the conceptual problems would persist in Tonga
as long as the general standard of the Kingdom's national statistical
system is low and the general state of under-development prevails.
A close scrutiny of the general performance and structure of the
Tongan economy, current and anticipated future needs/demands for various
national accounting statistical series, and current and anticipated
future status of data availability, suggests that a system of national
accounts for Tonga which could bring out the important economic characteristics
and inter-relationships of important sectors in the economy would be
considered as very desirable. With the increasing complexity of the
Kingdom's economy and associated increasing diversity of needs/demands
for appropriate statistical series, it is felt that a system of national
accounts which offers greater disaggregation of important aggregates and
which views the production sector at some component levels such as
"Agricultural", "Non-Agricultural, Non-Financial" and "Financial"
production sub-sectors even though it is a diversion from the general
recommendations of the SNA, would merit a high level of serviceability.
A system of national accounts which is essentially based on a
system of sector accounts with the incorporation of the above stated
partitioning of the production sector is therefore proposed for Tonga.
The proposed system also consists of sets of supplementary tables and
aggregative accounts which aim at providing essential supplementary
information via the adoption of different classification systems or
appropriate aggregations of information exhibited in the sector accounts.
Issues concerning suggested future expansion of the proposed system to
include appropriate input-output matrices and flow of funds tables and
the need for a proper development and application of an appropriate
social accounting matrix (SAM) for Tonga are also discussed.
The proposed system of national accounts for Tonga is relatively
comprehensive and possesses inherent flexibility which is a reflection
of its primary inheritance from the SNA. Even though it might take
some time before the proposed design can be implemented in full, its
relative comprehensiveness would automatically serve a lot of useful
purposes e.g. its explicit facilitation of attention to gaps in the
existing data series. The implementation of the proposed system is
regarded as a feasible long term project for the Tonga national statistical
agency. The extent to which it can be implemented in the very near future
given Government's acceptance, would depend heavily on the priority level
the Tonga Government attaches or would attach to the task of developing
and improving the Kingdom's national accounting system.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219075 |
| Date | January 1981 |
| Creators | Kami, Siosaia Katavake, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Information Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Siosaia Katavake Kami |
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