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lessee; with an operating lease, the lessor has the
risks and benefits (see paragraphs 5.56–5.60 for
definition and elaboration on financial leases);
(b) a resource lease, where the asset provided is a
natural resource, rather than a produced asset
(see paragraphs 11.85–11.90 for a definition and
elaboration on resource leases and rent); and
(c) a lease included under contracts, leases, and
licenses, where the lease itself—rather than the
underlying asset—becomes an economic asset of
the lessee. (See paragraph 13.12 for elaboration
on these leases.)
10.156 Operating leasing services cover leasing
(rental) and charters, without crew, of ships, aircraft,
and transport equipment, such as railway cars, contain-
ers, and rigs, without crew. Also included are operating
lease payments relating to other types of equipment
without an operator, including computers and telecom-
munications equipment. License payments for the right
to use intangible assets, such as software, intellectual
property, and so forth are included under specific head-
ings (computer services, charges for the use of intellec-
tual property n.i.e., etc.) rather than operating leasing.
Excluded from operating leasing services are leasing
of telecommunications lines or capacity (included in
telecommunications services) and rental of ships and
aircraft with crew (included in transport services).
10.157 Operating leases of dwellings and other
buildings are included in this item, if not included in
travel. If there is no objective basis on which to split
the payment between rent on land and rental on the
buildings, it is recommended to treat the whole amount
as rental when the building component is believed to
exceed the land component, and as a rent otherwise.
However, rent of land alone and rent of other natural
resources are classified as primary income (such leases
are called resource leases; see paragraph 11.85). Rental
of buildings by international organizations, embassies,
and so forth, is included under government goods and
services n.i.e. Rental of accommodation and vehicles
to nonresidents during visits to other economies is
included in travel (see paragraphs 10.86–10.88).
Trade-related services
10.158 Trade-related services cover commissions on
goods and service transactions payable to merchants,
commodity brokers, dealers, auctioneers, and commis-
sion agents. For example, these services include the auc-
tioneer’s fee or agent’s commission on sales of ships,
aircraft, and other goods. If the trader owns the goods
being sold, the trader’s margin is generally included indis-
tinguishably in general merchandise FOB (if the goods
pass through the economy of the trader) or under goods
under merchanting (otherwise). However, any margins
not included in the FOB price of the goods are included
in trade-related services. Brokerage on financial instru-
ments is excluded from trade-related services (included in
financial services) as are transport-related charges, such
as agency commissions (included in transport services).
Other business services
10.159 Other business services include distribution
services related to water, steam, gas, and other petro-
leum products and air-conditioning supply, where these
are identified separately from transmission services;
placement of personnel, security, and investigative ser-
vices; translation and interpretation; photographic ser-
vices; publishing; building cleaning; and real estate
services. Also included are forfeited down payments
not able to be specified to any other service.
10.160 Business and other services, such as trans-
port, construction, and computing, may be sub-
contracted. This arrangement may also be called
“outsourcing.” For example, a specialist service
arranger may be paid to provide back-office functions
for a customer, which the service arranger subcontracts
to another contractor. Thus, subcontracting is similar
in some ways to merchanting of goods, because the
services are purchased and resold. However, for ser-
vices, the degree of transformation involved may be
harder to assess than for goods, such as in the case
of bundling and managing the services of different
contractors. “Service merchanting” of this kind is an
important activity in some economies. The value of
services exported and imported in the economy of the
service arranger is recorded on a gross basis. (This
treatment is applicable because the arranger buys and
sells the services; if the arranger acted as an agent on
a commission basis, then only the commission would
be recorded as the service provided by the arranger.)
These services are classified to the appropriate spe-
cific service classification, such as transport, con-
struction, computing, or other business services. (See
also paragraph 10.75 for transport.) However, if the
activity is significant for an economy, net data could
be provided on a supplementary basis.
k. Personal, cultural, and recreational services
10.161 Personal, cultural, and recreational services
consist of (a) audiovisual and related services and (b)
other personal, cultural, and recreational services.
Chapter 10 g Goods and Services Account