Note 25 Other operating expenses
€ million | 2018 | 2017 |
Added to/released from provisions | 2 | 1 |
Premises and transport | 21 | 26 |
Rent and leases | 40 | 41 |
Corporate staff and ICT | 69 | 67 |
Sufferance tax and other tax | 160 | 143 |
Other | 51 | 51 |
Total | 343 | 329 |
Other operating expenses amounted to €343 million in 2018 compared with €329 million in 2017. The rise of €14 million was mainly due to the increase in sufferance taxes (by €17 million). Sufferance tax in 2018 amounted to €154 million compared with €137 million in 2017. The €17 million increase was due to back-levy of tax on the part of several municipal authorities in respect of 2016, 2017 and 2018.
For further disclosures relating to the costs of operating leases, reference is made to note [19].
The auditors’ fees were as follows:
Auditors’ fees
€ million | 2018 | 2017 |
Description of services: | ||
Audit of the financial statements: | 0.7 | 0.8 |
Other assurance services | 0.2 | 0.2 |
Total | 0.9 | 1.0 |
The above fees relate to the activities carried out by the accountancy firms and external auditors in connection with the parent company and the companies included in the consolidation, as referred to in Section 1, subsection 1, of the Audit Firms Supervision Act (WTA), and the fees charged by the entire network of which the accountancy firm is part. These fees relate to the audit of the financial statements for 2017 and 2018.