PUBLIC SECTOR ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING: THE EXAMPLE OF LITHUANIAN MINERAL RESOURCES

Abstract

The article analyzes the aspects of environmental accounting of public sector. The topics of investigation and assessment of mineral resources, their sparing usage, and balanced expansion have been widely discussed in the scientific literature. As the mineral resources are the exclusive property of each country, thus the State also is obliged to use them in moderation and to reveal this information to the concerned groups. According to the statistical data of the year 2007, the mineral resources surveyed in detail make 30,5% of the total Lithuanian national property, whereas the taxes paid by the mining companies for the usage of mineral resources refill the municipal and State budgets every year. In order to guarantee the balanced and sparing usage of mineral resources, the public sector should disclose the information about the present values of mineral resources, their increase and decrease with regard to the entire society. Thus the analyzed scientific problem is the determination and recording of present value of mineral resources and disclosure of such information in financial reports. The purpose of this article is to analyze the accounting aspects of mineral resources and to present the calculation of present values of mineral resources for the period of the years 2012-2017. According to the research results, it is meaningful to apply the method of present value for accounting of mineral resources because it allows assessing the amount of future taxes of the obtained resources. Following this methodology, in case of other constant conditions the value of mineral resources is growing because the moderate increase of tax rates for public mineral resources has been applied in Lithuania since 2012. As the result it would be possible to use these resources economically if the export of draining natural resources is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]