The Financial Information Return (FIR) is the main data collection tool used by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to collect financial and statistical information on municipalities. Section 294(1) of the Municipal Act requires that each municipality will annually report on its financial affairs, accounts and transactions in the form of the Financial Information Return. FIR data has been collected and stored since 1977. Data is available in a variety of formats from 1977 through to the current reporting year. CSV files are available by year for the years 2000 and on.