[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 20 (Friday, January 30, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5081-5082]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-01820]


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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 (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: Annual Wholesale Trade Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0195.
    Form Number(s): SA-42, SA-42A, SA-42(MSBO), SA-42A(MSBO), SA-
42(AGBR), SA-42A(AGBR).
    Type of Request: Reinstatement, with change, of an expired 
collection.
    Number of Respondents: 7,210.
    Average Hours per Response: 30 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 3,663.
    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 comprises two main types of 
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 fees.
    Respondents are separated into three 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, method of 
inventory valuation, total operating expenses, purchases, and, for 
selected industries, commissions, and sales on their own account. These 
data are collected to provide a sound statistical basis for the 
formation of policy by various government agencies, as well as to serve 
as a benchmark for the estimates compiled from the Monthly Wholesale 
Trade Survey [OMB No. 0607-0190]. Results will be available, at the 
United States summary level, for selected wholesale trade, and/or 
manufacturer's sales branches and offices and agents, brokers, 
representatives and electronic markets, industries approximately 
fifteen months after the end of the reference year.
    Every 5 years, AWTS requests data on detailed operating expenses. 
During the next three years, detailed operating expenses will not be 
collected. The last time AWTS collected detailed operating expenses was 
in 2013 for the 2012 survey year. The plan is to reinstate these 
questions in 2018 as part of the 2017 AWTS data collection. Estimates 
are published based on NAICS, which has been widely adopted throughout 
both the public and private sectors.
    The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) uses the data to estimate the 
change in 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. Data on sales taxes, which are collected on this 
survey quinquennially, are also used to prepare estimates of GDP by 
industry and to derive industry output for the I-O accounts. Data on 
detailed operating expenses, which will now be collected on this survey 
quinquennially, 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 Indexes and in developing productivity measurements. 
Private businesses use the estimates in computing business activity 
indexes.
    Other government agencies and businesses use the data to satisfy a 
variety of public and business needs such as economic market analysis, 
company performance, and forecasting future demands.
    In an effort to migrate our economic program toward online 
reporting and reduce paper usage, the AWTS encourages respondents to 
use the option of returning their data via the Census Bureau's online 
reporting system (Centurion). The Centurion system is designed to be 
secure and flexible for users. It allows respondents to complete and 
file in one session or to save and return over multiple sessions.
    For the first time during the 2013 processing year, our initial 
mailing contained a letter and flyer that provided instructions on how 
to report data and receive help online, and did not include a paper 
questionnaire.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.

[[Page 5082]]

    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 182, 224, 
and 225.
    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.

    Dated: January 27, 2015.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2015-01820 Filed 1-29-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P