These include obligations for anniversary payments and funeral expenses as well as provisions for early-retirement and phased-early-retirement plans. There is a continuous reduction of noncurrent provisions for anniversary payments and of provisions for phased-early-retirement plans. Interest-rate effects increased anniversary-payment provisions; provisions for phased-early-retirement plans increased due to newly concluded agreements with employees still working for the company.

These provisions cover warranty and product-liability obligations, as well as discounts, cash bonuses and other price reductions still to be granted, commissions payable to sales agents, and contingent losses from contractual agreements. The major portion of the provisions will probably be used for payouts over the next three years.

Provisions for environmental protection are created for anticipated obligations regarding contaminated-site remediation, water pollution control, recultivation of landfills, the clean-up of contaminated storage and production sites, and similar environmental measures. These provisions also include environmental protection charges likely to be imposed by government bodies. The additions are mainly attributable to the adjustments made to the actuarial interest rate. The noncurrent provisions for environmental protection are likely to be utilized within a period of 25 years.

These provisions are formed for a multiplicity of identifiable individual risks and contingencies (e. g. damages, reimbursement claims, legal expenses).

These contain amounts for current income tax obligations as well as for risks from tax audits and legal action. The existing noncurrent tax provisions will largely be utilized over the next two to four years.

Depending on the situation in the individual countries, interest rates of up to 10 percent were used to determine the provisions; in the prior year these interest rates ranged up to 9 percent. These provisions were primarily ones associated with purchasing, environmental provisions, provisions for phased-early-retirement plans and anniversary-payment provisions.

Other Provisions / Income Tax Provisions