23 – Other Provisions

Restoration obligations pertain mainly to anticipated costs for dismantling existing plants and buildings. The decrease was due primarily to the reclassification of the oil and gas business to the disposal group.

Provisions for environmental protection and remediation costs cover expected costs for rehabilitating contaminated sites, recultivating landfills, removal of environmental contamination at existing production or storage sites and similar measures.

Provisions for employee obligations primarily include obligations for the granting of long-service bonuses and anniversary payments, variable compensation including associated social security contributions, as well as provisions for early and phased retirement programs. The decrease was due primarily to releases for the long-term incentive program.

Provisions for obligations from sales and purchase contracts largely comprise obligations arising from rebates granted and other price discounts in the Agricultural Solutions segment, warranties and product liabilities, sales commissions and expected losses on contracts. The increase in provisions resulted from higher accruals for rebate programs.

Provisions for restructuring measures include severance payments to departing employees as well as expected costs for site closures, including the costs for demolition and similar measures.

Provisions for litigation, damage claims, warranties and similar obligations contain anticipated expenses from lawsuits in which BASF is the defendant party, as well as obligations under damage claims against BASF and fines.

Other largely includes noncurrent tax provisions.

The following table shows the development of other provisions by category. Other changes include reclassifications to disposal groups, changes in the scope of consolidation, acquisitions, divestitures, currency effects and the reclassification of obligations to liabilities when the amount and timing of these obligations become known.