National Statistical Institute

"Statistics on Services" Department

Joana Iltchevska

Senior expert

2, P.Volov Str. Sofia 1038, Bulgaria

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 604

Goods carried - measures the total volume of goods carried by the road transport between two places (place of loading and place of unloading).

Transport performance - measured in tonne-kilometres corresponds to the transportation of one tone over one kilometre by the road transport.

Average distance travelled - characterizes the average distance in kilometres on which the goods have been carried for a specific time period.

· Classification of economic Activities (CEA-2008, for international use NACE.BG-2008) - 49.41 "Road freight transport";

· Unique Classification for transported goods - NST 2007;

· Classification of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes in Bulgaria - NUTS;

· Classification of Dangerous goods - ADR.

Data refer to road freight operation for own account or for hire or reward performed on national or international territory.

The quantity and performance of road freight transport are collected in tonnes, tonne-kilometres and vehicle-kilometres. Data refer to:

· National transport;

· International transport;

· Cross-trade;

· Cabotage.

Road freight vehicle

Sample from the Register of motor vehicles.

For the Republic of Bulgaria.

Since 1^st quarter of 2000

Not applicable.

Thousand tonnes, million tkm, kilometres

Quarter

· Council regulation (EC) No 1172/98 of 25 May 1998 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 2691/1999 of 17 December 1999 on rules for implementing Council Regulation (EC) 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 2163/2001 of 7 November 2001 concerning the technical arrangements for data transmission for statistics on the carriage of goods by road;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 6/2003 of 30 December 2002 concerning the dissemination of statistics on the carriage of goods by road;

· Commission Regulation (EC) 642/2004 of 6 April 2004 on precision requirements for data collected in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 833/2007 of 16 July 2007 ending the transitional period provided for in Council regulation (EC) No 1172/98;

· Commission regulation (EC) No 1304/2007 of 7 November 2007 establishes NST 2007 as the unique goods classification for road freight and other transport statistics;

· Regulation (EC) No 399/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 amended council regulation No 1172/98 as regards the committee procedure;

· Commission regulation (EC) No 520/2010 of 16 June 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 831/2002 concerning access to confidential data for scientific purposes as regards the available surveys and statistical data sources;

· Commission regulation (EU) 202/2010 of 10 march 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 6/2003 concerning the dissemination of statistics on the carriage of goods by road;

· Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 January 2012 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road.

Not applicable.

· Law on Statistics;

· Commission regulation (EC) No 520/2010 of 16 June 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 831/2002 concerning access to confidential data for scientific purposes as regards the available surveys and statistical data sources;

· Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

All road freight micro-data are treated as if they were confidential. Only aggregated data are published.

Data are published according to the deadlines set in the National statistical program and the Release calendar - three months after the reference period.

The calendar is available on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

Data are published on the internet site of NSI and can be accessed from all users of statistical information.

Quarter, annual

Press release on transport

· Statistical Yearbook;

· Statistical Reference Book;

· Bulgaria (brochure).

Data on Road freight transport are available to all users of the NSI website under the heading Domain statistics - Transport and Communications - Other annual data - Transport: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/7167

The access to micro-data for research purposes is granted according to Commission Regulation (EC) No 831/2002 on access to confidential data for scientific purposes (addition of the 4 surveys:

European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), Community Statistics on Information Society (CSIS) - module 2: Households and individuals, Household Budget Survey (HBS), Carriage of Goods by Road (CGR).

Data on road freight transport from all reporting countries are published on the internet site of Eurostat.

· Methodology for road freight transport: http://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/metadata/Transport_Methodology_RFT_en.pdf;

· Reference Manual on Road Freight Transport Statistics;

· Methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in member states and candidate countries.

Methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in member states and candidate countries.

· Usage of common definition and methods;

· Checks and validation of data at national level;

· Annual reports to Eurostat on the national characteristics of the data collection;

· Data validation from Eurostat according to checks set in the methodology manual.

The survey is carried out according the international requirements.

Main users are state institutions, different organizations and specialized in the sector enterprises.

Not applicable.

From the survey are excluded vehicles with gross weight under 6 tonnes, military vehicles, vehicles of Ministry of Interior and other public administration, agricultural tractors and other motor vehicles non designed to carry goods, vehicles with weight and dimensions exceeding the normal permitted limits of the country.

Road freight data come from sample survey. The sample error should by up to 5%.

At the end of each reporting year the sample error in % is calculated. An error is calculated for each stratum separately in order to obtain the total error of the sample. This is done in respect of the tonnes and tonne-kilometres.

Underreporting can be considered as a prevalent bias of the road freight statistics. Having in mind that respondents ease their burden by omitting journeys, the underreporting is in principle an imminent systematic error.

The necessary actions are taken in order to reduce this error to minimum and to ensure better quality and completeness of the received data.

Quarterly data are transmitted to Eurostat 5 months after the reference period.

All the data are transmitted according to the set deadline in the Regulations.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Road freight statistics is different from those of other transport modes and the most important characteristic is that the values are estimates based on sample surveys and that each reporting country reports on its haulier? operations all over the world, not just on national territory.

Cost and Burden for the survey are defined according the National Statistical Program for each reference year.

Countries can update incomplete or revised datasets referring to previous quarters at the same time when they submit new quarterly datasets. Data are revised on the basis of detected errors.

See 19.1.

The information is obtained weekly from all freight vehicles with weight over 6 tonnes included in the sample for the reference period.

Quarterly

Sample survey

With special software.

With special software.

Not applicable.

National Statistical Institute

"Annual business statistics" Department

Tatyana Nikolova

State expert

2, P. Volov Str.; 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 153

The statistical survey of non-financial enterprises provides information by size of enterprises in terms of employed, by the following economic indicators: number of enterprises, number of persons employed, revenues, expenditure and tangible fixed assets.

The annual data of non-financial enterprises are aggregated by sections (the first sign of NACE.BG-2008)

The annual data, grouping by size class: the indicators are published on section level (the first sign of NACE.BG-2008) and by size class of employment.

Annual regional data: Three indicators are published on a regional level by sections (the first sign of NACE.BG-2008 and NACE.BG-2003) and by statistical regions (NUTS).

· Classification of Economic Activities (CEA-2008, for international use NACE.BG-2008) ? in force since 2008;

· Classification of territorial units for statistical purposes in Bulgaria (NUTS).

Non-financial enterprises, classified in sections A to S (excluding K) by NACE.BG-2008 from 2008 onwards.

The main economic indicators, published in this section are:

• 'Number of enterprises' all non-financial enterprises, which were active during whole or part of the reference year and have submitted their annual reports in the National statistical Institute or National Revenue Agency;
• 'Number of persons employed' All persons employed working in a given enterprise on full or part-time, including seasonal workers (converted into full-time equivalent), home workers, working owners, employees under contract for management and control, employees in civil contracts that do not work with another employer and unpaid family workers;
• 'Revenues' the sum of revenues from operating activity and financial revenues;
• 'Expenditure' - the sum of the expenditure for operating activity and financial expenditure;
•  'Tangible fixed assets'  the sum of tangible fixed assets of enterprises, compiling balance sheets, and data about tangible fixed assets of enterprises, non compiling balance sheets.

The basic unit of survey is an enterprise. The overall main economic indicators and the data by size class of employment are calculated from the annual data of the enterprises.

The enterprise is the smallest organisation unit producing goods or services which makes its own business decisions. The enterprise carries out one or more activities at one or more locations. The enterprise may be an independent legal unit.

The survey is exhaustive and the statistical population includes all non-financial enterprises classified in sections A to S (excluding K) by NACE.BG-2008 from 2008 onwards.

The data refer to the activities of non-financial enterprises carried out in the country.

Since 2008.

Not applicable.

• Number (enterprises, persons employed);
•  Thousand BGN (all other indicators).

Calendar year

Bulgarian legislation:

• Law on Statistics;
• National Statistical Programme;
•  Accounting and tax legislation.

Not applicable.

Regulation (EC) ? 223/2009 of 11 March 2009 defines common criteria for protection of confidential data and methods for sending the information to and its use by Eurostat. The Law on Statistics ensures the protection of statistical confidentiality and the use of individual data of enterprises for statistical purposes only.

The individual (primary) data are confidential according to the Law on Statistics and European legislation. To ensure their protection and inability to be identified, the aggregated indicators are also defined as confidential when:

· Criterion A - the indicator is calculated from one or two enterprises;

· Criterion B - one enterprise forms 85% or more of the total value of this indicator.

The date for publication of statistical information is given in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute.

The calendar is available on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

Data are published on the NSI website and are available to all users of statistical information.

Yearly

Not applicable.

•  Statistical Yearbook;
•  Statistical Reference Book;
• Regions, districts and municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria.

The data are available to all users of the NSI website under the heading Business Statistic;Annual Business Statistics; Other Annual Data; Non-financial Enterprises: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/8228

Not available.

Information service on request, according to the Rules for dissemination of statistical products and services of NSI.

Law for SMEs, national accounting legislation and developed statistical methodology: http://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/metadata/Methodology_NF_Ent_en.pdf

Not available

This includes the improvement of the on-line based information system 'Business statistics', which ensures strict arithmetical and logical input control. The additional output control is made when are registered the big differences in the value of given indicator between two consecutive years or in comparison with the results of other statistical surveys in NSI - Short-term statistics, statistics Prodcom, Foreing trade, Labor force.

This is made in accordance with the standard criteria for assessing the quality - relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness, comparability and coherence.

The main users of data are:

· International organisations;

· Interested state institutions under signed agreements;

· Research institutes, universities, economic analysts and students;

· Private non-governmental organisations, agencies, associations, media, etc.;

· Directorates and departments in the NSI.

There has been no study of user satisfaction, but no cases of outstanding requests for information are registered.

Full compliance with the Bulgarian legislation.

The Information of the calculation of economic indicators is based on the annual accounts of non-financial enterprises, as full coherence of the input data is provided.

The survey of non-financial enterprises is exhaustive and there are no sampling errors.

Not applicable.

The deadline for the publication of data on national level is t+11 months for the final data, where t is the reference year.

The deadline under item 15.1 is strictly followed.

For the country data are comparable.

The data series are fully comparable for the period 2008 - the last reference year.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

NSI of Bulgaria is making extraordinary efforts to reduce the respondents' burden. An example is the signed agreement called "Single Entry Point" between NSI and the National Revenue Agency for a single providing of the annual reports and using the data from both institutions. Developed by NSI on-line based information system "Business Statistics" and ensured methodological and technical assistance to respondents during the reporting campaign are highly appreciated by respondents and help to reduce their workload.

The National policy, as well as Eurostat's, allows the revision of already published data if there are serious reasons.

The revised data replace the already published data as soon as possible after the revision is made.

The main data sources for calculating the economic indicators are:

· Annual Reports of the non-financial enterprises, compiling balance sheets;

· Annual Reports of the non-financial enterprises, non-compiling balance sheets.

Yearly.

Exhaustively for all non-financial enterprises.

Data validation is made by additional logical input control and comparison between the output data and the results of the previous year and other surveys, carried out by NSI.

The survey is exhaustive and further data evaluation is not made.

Not applicable.