The 1993 SNA treatment of withdrawals from quasi-corporations differs from that of payment of dividends from corporations. Dividends are always assumed to be from current earnings, but withdrawals from quasi-corporations may not be. Public corporations are often quasi-corporations and the treatment accorded quasi-corporations allows government to manage the pattern of withdrawals from one year to another for political reasons. Should the SNA be amended to limit this possibility and if so which of two possibilities is recommended?
The first option is to bring the treatment for quasi-corporations more into line with that for corporations in respect of large and exceptional payments (like super-dividends) as well as of capital injections made by the government as the owner.
The second option would be to adopt an approach for public corporations similar to that for direct investment enterprises and show redistributed earnings (or losses ) of public corporations as accruing in the government accounts and then reinvested in (or withdrawn from) the equity of the corporation.