Zsolt Völfinger

KSH, Hungary

Status of the business register

The Hungarian Business Register is operated by the Business Register Section of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office. Tasks of the register are:

•      Registration of data and variables of the business units.

•      Maintenance of the data of registered units. The business register is updated with administrative and survey data. The linked administrative sources are: Tax Office, Registry Courts (data of companies and partnerships), Ministry of Interior (data for sole proprietors), and Ministry of Finance (data of central and local governmental units). The Business Register has got updates from all of the above mentioned four sources via electronic data transmission. Feedback of business statistical surveys and the register update survey are the statistical sources of the register. The Regional Offices of the Statistical Office update the register as well.

•      Producing snapshots for survey frame of data collections.

•      Producing enterprise statistics, demographic and regional data on enterprises.

•      Providing information services subject to charge.

The maintenance of the Business Register is regulated by the Statistical Act of Hungary and the Business Register fulfils the requirements of EU Regulations on business registers and statistical units.

The statistical Business Register of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO) contains the data of all legal units which are registered by the Tax Office and have tax identifier. The tax identifier and the identity code in the BR are the same. The registered entities are: companies, partnerships, sole proprietors, government and social security bodies, non-profit institutions obliged to pay tax.

Company Law makes it possible for the companies and partnerships to register themselves and declare most of the data modifications at one place, namely in the Registry Court, and obliges the Registry Court and the concerned offices, among them the Statistical Office, to exchange the data electronically and prompt via network. This is the single window registration system for companies and partnerships. A very similar system is running for the registration of sole proprietors under the control of a government regulation. The „windowsĦħ of this system are the Registration Offices of the Ministry of Interior.

The register includes legal units, local units and local kind of activity units. The profiling of complex enterprises and enterprise groups is under way.

The register-related tasks and responsibilities are concentrated in the Register Section in the Informatics Department. Human resources are allocated to the Regional Offices as well. For representing the users as well as the operator and developer staff of the register the HCSO has formed the so-called Register Co-ordination Committee, which supports and controls the Business Register Section.

Issues resolved during the past year

Revision of the statistical main activity

The main activity of the registered units is received from administrative sources. The enterprises declare their own activity therefore survey sources frequently report different activities as declared. The statistical main activity attribute of the register is based only on survey data using value added approach. The main activity verification is carried out every year since 2001.

In 2003 the main activity of 64 thousand units was checked. Survey data indicated different statistical main activities in 11 thousand cases. The proposed statistical main activities were verified by the regional offices and by statisticians of each business sectors. The statisticians validated close to 9 and a half thousand changes; these units received a new statistical main activity code in the business register. Data collections depending on activities are based on the statistical main activity attribute.

Finishing the NACE Rev 1.1 compatible activity codes in the BR

In the beginning of 2003 the HCSO changed the activity classification to a NACE Rev 1.1 compatible one.

During the last two years the principal activity code of 83 thousand enterprises has been revised. A part of them were encoded automatically, but due to the splitting into more new subclasses some old ones, about 20 thousand enterprises have been surveyed in 2003 and another 36 thousand in 2004.

Profiling large and complex businesses

In 2003 the Hungarian Central Statistical Office started a pilot project with the aim to create complex enterprises. Before the project we did not have information on legal and business relationships between legal units. Statisticians of the regional offices created the profiles of the selected groups by face to face meetings. After the profiling process we were able to delineate close to 200 enterprise groups with resident group heads and to create 37 complex enterprises formed by linked legal units.

The enterprise-level data was uploaded into the business register. From November 2004 the Office will carry on the profiling activities. In order to create the enterprise group register the HCSO intends to profile totally 4-500 units.

Business demography investigations

The HCSO is participating in the Eurostat business demography project. The results of the first harmonised data collection were delivered to the Eurostat at the end of August 2004.

The methodology requires complex matching processes in case of the enterprise births and deaths. The matching and the imputations of missing employment data were fulfilled by self-developed programs. The results of the business demography investigations will be published at the end of 2004.

Satellite registers of the BR

Since May 2004 the business register provides information for the Intrastat system. Outside of the intrastate register a complex register system operates around the business register: the register of retail trade shops, restaurants and hotels, the register of farms, the register of local units. These registers are connected to the BR via database links and the maintenance systems of them are harmonized.

Updating the Business Register Manual

The manual of the business register for the staff of the register and for the users within the Statistical Office is currently under updating. The aim is to produce clear documentation of the variables and processes. The amended manual provides a clear picture of the data contents and sources of the main variables of the register.

Future plans

Currently the quality of business register in not analysed. We intend to prepare a report on the quality of the register to our users.

As result of the profiling activities in 2005 the enterprise group level of the business register will be created.

Enterprise statistics data will be updated into the interactive data warehouse system on the portal of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office.