Joint parish councils, accounts, 2004

New accounting guidelines from the Ministry have been introduced for 2004. This complicates comparisons of items with precedent years.

Operations

The operating revenues increased by NOK 134 mill, from 2003 to NOK 2 491 million in 2004. Subventions given by the local and regional municipality account for 64 per cent of the total operating income. Revenue originating from sales, fees and rent and other operating income represented 6.5 per cent.

The operating expenses increased by NOK 94 mill, and amounted to NOK 2 388 mill in 2004. Payroll expense is the single most important item of the expenses and constitutes almost 63 per cent of the operating expenses.

For 2004 the average revenue per capita was NOK 544 - an increase from 2003 of NOK 29. The increase in the average expense per capita increased from 2003 by NOK 21, which improved the gross operating profit to a level of NOK 22 per capita.

The distribution of the total operating expenses related to purpose shows that 43 per cent was allocated to the operation of churches. The administration accounted for 29 per cent, while the operation of cemeteries and other activities represented 18 and 10 per cent respectively.

The calculated depreciation made by the joint parish councils accrued to NOK 81 million. Depreciations are, however, not accounted for in the governmental income statements for these councils with respect to the result.

Investments

The amount of investments in tangible fixed assets for 2004 was NOK 374 million, which was a substantial increase from precedent years. NOK 345 million of the investments are financed by subventions, contributions, transfers in addition to funds. New loans amounted to 29 mill NOK.

NOK

71 per cent of the investments are related to the churches, while 24 per cent relates to the cemeteries.

Balance sheet

Total assets administered by the joint parish councils in 2004 were NOK 4 857 million, which is an increase from 2003 of NOK 369 mill. The increase is primarily related to the investments in the churches.

As transfers and equity financed a substantial part of the investments, the increase in long term liabilities is NOK 16 million.

The ratio between current assets and current liabilities has remained stable in 2004 compared to 2003,with a ratio of 2,1.

The working capital has improved during the year by 46 mill NOK from 2003 and now totals NOK 436 million.

The basis of the tables

55 joint parish councils have not submitted their accounts for 2004. In the tables presented, data for these 55 councils have been calculated based upon population statistics.

With reference to the changes in the accounting guidelines there might be potential

inconsistencies of some of the accounts across the total number of joint parish councils. That is the reason for not specifying items in Table 1.

Tables:

• Table 1 Financial statement
• Table 2 Balance sheet
• Table 3 Total operating expenses by purpose
• Table 4 Total investment by purpose