[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 201 (Thursday, October 19, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Page 48680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-22674]


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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.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: Annual Wholesale Trade Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0195.
    Form Number(s): SA-42, SA-42A, SA-42A(MSBO), SA-42(AGBR), SA-
42A(AGBR).
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 8,900.
    Average Hours per Response: 1 hour and 15 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 11,085.
    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 annually publishes two main 
categories for 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 fee.
    Respondents are separated into three type of operation 
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, total operating expenses, purchases, and for 
selected industries, commissions, and sales on their own account. These 
data are used to satisfy a variety of public and business needs such as 
conducting economic market analysis, gauging company performance, and 
forecasting future demand as well as serving as a benchmark for the 
estimates compiled from the Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey [OMB No. 
0607-0190].
    Results will be published on the current 2012 NAICS basis, by type 
of wholesaler, at the United States summary level, and for selected 
wholesale industries approximately 14 months after the end of the 
reference year
    A new sample was introduced with the 2016 AWTS. Approximately 73% 
of the sample asked to report will be doing so for the first time (and, 
consequently, approximately 73% of the old sample will no longer be 
asked to report). For the 2016 AWTS the Census Bureau requested two 
years of data, 2016 and 2015, in order to link old and new samples and 
ensure that the published estimates continue to be reliable and 
accurate. Every 5 years AWTS collects detailed operating expenses and 
sales tax. These items were last collected in 2013 for the 2012 survey 
year. The plan is to reinstate these questions in 2018 as part of the 
2017 AWTS data collection. These detailed expense questions are only 
applicable to the merchant wholesale establishments, excluding 
manufacturers' sales branches and offices.
    The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) uses the data to estimate the 
change in the 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. The tax data are used to prepare 
estimates of GDP by industry and to derive industry output for the I-O 
accounts. The data on detailed operating expenses 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 Indices and in developing productivity measurements.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: The Census Bureau conducts this survey under the 
authority of Title 13, United States Code, Sections 131 and 182. 
Sections 224 and 225 make this survey mandatory.
    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.

Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental PRA Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2017-22674 Filed 10-18-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P