FINANCE COMMITTEE

1. The purpose of this paper is to request the Finance Committee's concurrence with the discount rate to be used in applying credits to 2001 contributions.

2. The Conference, at its Twenty-sixth Session in November 1991^1/, noted, in fact, that in determining the rate of discount to be used in the test discount scheme, the Director-General should consult the Finance Committee. The purpose of this paper is therefore to identify an appropriate rate of interest for 2000 discounts and to quantify the amount of discount earned on qualifying contributions in 2000 using the suggested interest rate.

3. The Committee will recall from discussions at its Seventy-second session in September 1991 and consideration by the Conference^1/ that the rules for a proposed discount scheme were defined as follows:

1. A Member Nation could earn a discount if the full amount of its assessment were paid prior to 31 March of the year of assessment.
2. The discount earned would be credited to the Member Nations in the year after the payment.
3. The discount credited to Member Nations would not exceed the interest earned on Regular Programme funds during that year. Therefore, the scheme would not create a deficit in earnings from investments.
4. Member Nations who have arrears outstanding would not qualify for the discount treatment on their remittance until the arrears were settled in full.

4. The Committee at its Eighty-eighth Session in September 1997 considered the proposal made by the Director-General to modify the methodology used for the calculation of the incentive in the interests of an equitable application of the rules and the need to reduce the potentially high cost of the Scheme. Under this revised methodology, contributions received on the first day of the discount period would qualify to receive 100 percent of the discount whereas contributions received on the last day of the period would receive only 1/90^th of the discount. The Conference at its twenty-ninth session in Novembre 1997 approved this refinenment and agreed that it should be applied with effect from 1 January 1998.

5. The assessed contributions of Member Nations that have met the criteria as described in (a) and (d) above are shown in the table below. Those Member Nations qualifying for a discount for prompt payment in 2000 are detailed in the Appendix.

6. As in the past, the Director-General suggests that the Finance Committee consider an average of the Eurodollar interest rates for the first three months of 2000 as the most appropriate rate to use in determining the amount of discount to credit to the Member Nations who so qualify. The Director-General further suggests, as approved by the Committee at its Seventy-sixth session, that the discount rate be determined by allocating one fourth of this average annual rate to the first ninety days of the year.

7. The interest rates on Eurodollar deposits during the first quarter of 2000 are shown below:

8. A numerical average of the interest rates is 5.7250% per annum. By employing the methodology suggested by the Director-General in paragraph 5, a discount rate of 1.43% is determined.

9. The application of this 1.43% rate to the qualifying assessments of US$85,168,949 shown in paragraph 5 results in a total discount of US$437,831.19. In accordance with the rules stated in paragraph 3, this discount would be credited to the 2001 assessments of the Member Nations who paid the full amount of their assessment by 31 March 2000. The rules also provide that the amount of such credit would not exceed the interest earned on Regular Programme funds during the year. Accordingly, a final decision on this matter cannot be taken until year-end when the amount of interest earned on Regular Programme funds is known.

10. The Director-General requests the Finance Committee's concurrence on the discount rate to be used in applying credits to 2001 assessed contributions.

C 91/REP, para 338 & 339