[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 201 (Thursday, October 19, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Page 48680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-22674]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request
The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
Title: Annual Wholesale Trade Survey.
OMB Control Number: 0607-0195.
Form Number(s): SA-42, SA-42A, SA-42A(MSBO), SA-42(AGBR), SA-
42A(AGBR).
Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
Number of Respondents: 8,900.
Average Hours per Response: 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Burden Hours: 11,085.
Needs and Uses: The Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS) covers
employer firms with establishments located in the United States and
classified in wholesale trade as defined by the North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS). This sector annually publishes two main
categories for wholesalers: (1) Merchant wholesalers that sell goods on
their own account (including sales offices and sales branches, except
retail stores, maintained by manufacturing, refining, or mining
enterprises apart from their plants or mines for the purpose of
marketing their products) and (2) electronic markets, agents, and
brokers that arrange sales for purchases for others generally for a
commission or fee.
Respondents are separated into three type of operation
classifications: (1) Merchant wholesale establishments, excluding
manufacturers' sales branches and offices; (2) manufacturers' sales
branches and offices; and (3) agents, brokers, and business-to-business
electronic markets. The survey requests firms to provide annual sales,
annual e-commerce sales, year-end inventories held inside or outside of
the United States, total operating expenses, purchases, and for
selected industries, commissions, and sales on their own account. These
data are used to satisfy a variety of public and business needs such as
conducting economic market analysis, gauging company performance, and
forecasting future demand as well as serving as a benchmark for the
estimates compiled from the Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey [OMB No.
0607-0190].
Results will be published on the current 2012 NAICS basis, by type
of wholesaler, at the United States summary level, and for selected
wholesale industries approximately 14 months after the end of the
reference year
A new sample was introduced with the 2016 AWTS. Approximately 73%
of the sample asked to report will be doing so for the first time (and,
consequently, approximately 73% of the old sample will no longer be
asked to report). For the 2016 AWTS the Census Bureau requested two
years of data, 2016 and 2015, in order to link old and new samples and
ensure that the published estimates continue to be reliable and
accurate. Every 5 years AWTS collects detailed operating expenses and
sales tax. These items were last collected in 2013 for the 2012 survey
year. The plan is to reinstate these questions in 2018 as part of the
2017 AWTS data collection. These detailed expense questions are only
applicable to the merchant wholesale establishments, excluding
manufacturers' sales branches and offices.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) uses the data to estimate the
change in the private inventories component of gross domestic product
(GDP) and output in both the benchmark and annual input-output (I-O)
accounts and GDP by industry. The tax data are used to prepare
estimates of GDP by industry and to derive industry output for the I-O
accounts. The data on detailed operating expenses are used to produce
national estimates of value added, gross output, and intermediate
inputs and serve as a benchmark for the annual industry accounts, which
provide the control totals for the GDP-by-state accounts.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the data as input to its
Producer Price Indices and in developing productivity measurements.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.
Frequency: Annually.
Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
Legal Authority: The Census Bureau conducts this survey under the
authority of Title 13, United States Code, Sections 131 and 182.
Sections 224 and 225 make this survey mandatory.
This information collection request may be viewed at
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce
collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice
to [email protected] or fax to (202) 395-5806.
Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental PRA Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2017-22674 Filed 10-18-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P