Statistics Estonia met with EKOMAR respondents

EKOMAR is the most extensive and important statistical activity covering annual data, based on which Statistics Estonia compiles overviews on entrepreneurship and receives an input to assess economic growth. If an enterprise submits its annual report to the Commercial Register, then based on that report 80% of the enterprise’s EKOMAR questionnaire is already pre-filled for Statistics Estonia; so far it has been possible to use pre-filling in the case of 88% of the respondents. Despite that, only 30% of the enterprises submit their EKOMAR questionnaire on time and the low data submission rate has forced Statistics Estonia to start considering imposing a penalty payment on enterprises failing to submit their data.

“The meeting was very constructive and hopefully beneficial for both sides,” said Andres Oopkaup, Director General of Statistics Estonia. “I hope that what enterprises retained from the meeting was that the goal of Statistics Estonia is to obtain data on time in order to produce statistics and that, when it comes to measures for improving receipt of questionnaires, imposing a penalty payment is the last resort, used in extreme situations,” Oopkaup stressed.

Oopkaup noted that the suggestions made at the meeting could be divided into four groups: 1) respondents could be included more in the process of developing new data collection channels in the state, 2) Statistics Estonia could revise the deadlines for submitting statistical questionnaires, 3) the EKOMAR questionnaire could be pre-filled based on data from the annual report to the Commercial Register even before the annual report has been signed by the owner of the company, 4) the EKOMAR questionnaire in eStat (Statistics Estonia’s electronic data collection channel) could be made more user friendly.

Marek Jaakson, member of the board and head of finance of RaiMar Konsultatsioonid OÜ, said that nobody doubts the need for official statistics. “At the same time, as a representative of a small enterprise, I want that the enterprise could submit all the necessary information to the state in one place and, if possible, in one session,” Jaakson said and added that, right now, the revenue earned by a small enterprise is disproportionate to the costs of submitting data to various public institutions. “I think that there could be a possibility to submit data to Statistics Estonia directly from the accountancy software,” he added.

Reilika Mikk, accountant at Certification Centre Ltd., noted that Statistics Estonia has a list of errors on eStat and fixing those problems would certainly improve the rate of submitting questionnaires on time. “Although there are nearly 40,000 enterprises that submit data to Statistics Estonia, the institution has not received the 90,000 euros necessary for making eStat more user friendly from structural funds,” she said. “One solution could be that the enterprises submitting data could sponsor Statistics Estonia with a few euros in order to reduce the administrative burden of their own employees and the problem could be solved,” she proposed.

Ulvi Kuusk, head accountant at Paide MEK AS, said that she has used Statistics Estonia’s data to present the market position of the enterprise to the management. “As a statistics aficionado, I know what EKOMAR data are used for and therefore I fill out the EKOMAR questionnaire every year,” she said. “Filling out the EKOMAR questionnaire would be significantly more fun if Statistics Estonia could get resources to design the system to make submitting data more user friendly,” Kuusk added.

In 2016, nearly 8,000 enterprises are subject to submitting the EKOMAR questionnaire. Depending on the economic activity of the enterprise, the deadline for submitting falls in the period of 1–8 July.