How we collect and publish EITI summary data

EITI summary data provides a standardised overview of key financial and governance information disclosed through EITI Reports and reporting. It is compiled using the summary data template, which is completed by implementing countries as part of Requirement 7.2 of the EITI Standard.

Countries implementing the EITI disclose data on their fiscal regimes and the governance of their natural resource through annual EITI reporting. While EITI Reports allow for flexibility – enabling countries to include additional information relevant to their context, such as revenue streams from forestry or other sectoral data – the summary data file is designed for comparability. It includes only information specifically required under the EITI Standard, using harmonised classifications:  

• Government Finance Statistics (GFS) classifications from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for revenue streams.
• Harmonised System (HS) codes from the World Customs Organization for commodities.
• ISO codes for currencies.

By standardising data across countries and years, the summary data enables comparative analysis and cross-country research.

EITI Reports may present information in ways that differ from summary data. The key differences include: 

• Revenue reporting: EITI Reports may present revenues declared by companies, while summary data records only government-declared revenues.
• Tax payments: EITI Reports in some countries includes employee-related taxes (e.g. income tax, withholding tax), which are excluded from summary data as they are not considered company contributions to government revenues.
• Avoiding duplication: EITI Reports in some countries may double-count payments between companies and the government, recording them as both payments made and received. Summary data ensures such payments are reported only once.
• Currency standardisation: EITI Reports may use local currencies, whereas summary data expresses values in US dollars.
• Commodity volumes: EITI Reports may use non-standard units for reporting commodity volumes, while summary data applies standard classifications.
• Data extraction: If EITI Reports omits certain required information, it may need to be sourced from other publicly available data. 

Unlike EITI Reports, which must be published within two years of the end of the fiscal year, there is no fixed deadline for submitting summary data. Once received, the International Secretariat reviews the data for:

• Internal consistency
• Comparison with annual EITI Reports
• Comparability with previous submissions

If any issues arise, the International Secretariat works with the country’s EITI multi-stakeholder group to resolve them before publishing the data. This quality assurance process may result in a delay between the publication of the EITI Report and the release of the corresponding summary data. 

The International Secretariat continuously works to improve data quality and collection processes. If you identify an issue with our data or have any questions, please contact the EITI data team at [email protected].