The calculation of net grant equivalent (NGE) consists in reducing all the forms of aid connected with an investment to a common measure irrespective of the country concerned, i.e. the net intensity, for the purposes of comparing them with each other or with a predetermined ceiling. What is involved is an ex ante comparative method that does not always reflect accounting practice. The net intensity represents the final benefit which a firm is deemed to derive from the value without tax of the aid in relation to the assisted investment. This calculation may take account only of fixed capital expenditure corresponding to land, building and plant, which represent the standard base. In the case of schemes whose base includes supplementary expenditure, the latter must be limited to a certain proportion of the standard base. Thus, all schemes will be examined, in the light of their intensities reduced to the expenditure appearing in the standard base, as shown in the following examples.