This page defines key public finance concepts and terms used when talking about COVID-19 funding decisions
- Initiative
- refers to an individual programme or activity for which funding is provided (e.g. the Wage Subsidy Scheme). Individual funding decisions can be made at different times to fund the same initiative, and funding for an initiative may be allocated to multiple appropriations. In the context of Budget decision-making, an initiative is how proposals are presented to Ministers during the Budget process.
- Fiscal impact
- refers to the impact of a funding decision on the Crown’s net debt across the forecast period. The forecast period is the current financial year plus four outyears from when the decision was made.
- Allocation
- refers to the counting of funding decisions against Budget allowances or other funds (including the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund / CRRF) to manage the fiscal impact of policy decisions.
- Appropriation
- refers to the maximum legal authority available to the Crown or an Office of Parliament to spend on a specific activity, as approved by Parliament. Most appropriations provide authority for one financial year (called annual appropriations), although some appropriations can provide authority for up to five financial years (called multi-year appropriations).
- Tagged contingency
- refers to funding that is set aside for an initiative, and included in the fiscal forecasts, but not immediately reflected in changes to appropriations. Further work may be required or certain conditions met before funding is ‘appropriated’.
- Actual expenditure
- refers to the actual amount of spending incurred.
- Expense and capital transfers
- refers to the process by which funding in an annual appropriation in one financial year is transferred into the same appropriation in one or more of the next three financial years. This process can happen before the end of a financial year, in which case the appropriation is adjusted in both the current and future financial year(s). The process can also happen following the close of a financial year (if there is an in-principle agreement before the close of the financial year to a transfer), in which case the prior financial year’s appropriated amount is not adjusted.