Ministry
of Labour and Employment, Government of India has decided to prepare a new
series of Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers. For this purpose,
Government has set up a Standing Tripartite Committee (STC) to advise the
Government on issues pertaining to the Consumer Price Index for Industrial
Workers (New Series). The STC will go into details of various parameters that
are taken into consideration for updation of the base year such as the
weighting diagram, consumption basket, selection of centres, sample size of
establishments for price collection etc.
Government
has no specific information about the skilled/semi-skilled worker outsourced by
the Central Government /State Governments through contractors not being paid as
per the CPI. However, the Contract Labour Act, 1970 inter-alia, contains
provisions for payment of wages to these category of workers. The contract
workers are also entitled to receive minimum wages as notified by the
appropriate Governments from time to time.
This
information was given by Minister of State for Labour & Employment Shri
Kodikunnil Suresh in the Lok Sabha in reply to a written question.
Source
: PIB
Background
of CPI-IW series:
The
CPI-IW series on scientific lines was first introduced with base 1960=100 which
was based on the results of Family Living Survey conducted in 1958-59 at 50
industrially important centres. The series was then, updated on base 1982=100
and a revision in 1999-2000 has further updated the base on 2001=100. The
current series of CPI-IW with base year 2001=100 covers 78 industrially
important centers spread across the country.
Need
for Base Updation:
The
consumption pattern of the working class population undergoes change over a
period of time and therefore, it becomes necessary that the consumption basket
is updated from time to time to account for these changes and to maintain the
representative character of the index. The need for frequent revision of base
on account of fast changing consumption pattern of the target group has been
recommended by International Labour Organisation, National Statistical
Commission, National Commission on Labour and also Technical Advisory Committee
on Statistics of Prices and Cost of Living. Also this recommendation was
strongly reiterated by the Index Review Committee set up under the Chairmanship
of Prof. Chadha which inter-alia stated that the intervening gap between the
two series should not exceed 10 years. Labour Bureau accordingly, has proposed
to revise the base year of the existing CPI-IW series 2001=100 to a more recent
base year preferably, 2013-2014=100.
Scope
and Coverage
The
current series of CPI-IW with base 2001=100 was constructed on the basis of
employment data in seven sectors namely, Registered Factories, Mining,
Plantations, Ports & Docks, Public Motor Transport, Electricity Generation
& Distribution Establishments and Railways sector. The current series
comprises of a basket of about 370 items and 289 price collection markets
spread across 78 centres of the country. In the existing series, the Working
Class Family Income & Expenditure Survey was conducted during 1998-99 by
the NSSO and a sample size of 41040 family budget schedules and 15960 house
rent schedules (i.e. about a total of 57000 schedules) were canvassed from 78
industrially important centres of the country. The price collection work was
done by the Labour Bureau and the main survey work of income & expenditure
data collection was conducted by NSSO.
In
line with the recommendations of Index Review Committee (IRC), the
possibilities of extending the scope of the new series to two more
additional sectors i.e. Handloom and Construction sectors are being considered.
However, Labour Bureau expects an increase in the number of centres from
existing 78 centres to around 88-95 centres approximately. Consequently, the
total number of family budget enquiry schedules and house rent schedules to be
canvassed would increase to 70,000 schedules approximately.
Committees:
i)
Standing Tripartite Committee
The
Index Review Committee (IRC) headed by Prof. G.K. Chadha recommended for
constitution of a Standing Tripartite Committee (STC) of all the
stakeholders. Accordingly Ministry of Labour & Employment constituted
a Standing Tripartite Committee (STC) vide order No. Y-12011/5/2010-ESA(LB),
dated 12th January, 2011.
The
Terms of Reference of the STC formed are as follows:
The Standing Tripartite Committee will
{i}
examine the various aspects of the base year revision of Consumer Price Index
Number Series for Industrial Workers {CPI-IW} including the selection of
Centres, sample size, sampling design, methodology for deriving the weighting
diagram and linking factor;
{ii}
examine the method of price collection procedures and machinery of price
collection;
{iii}
examine the centre specific weighting diagrams for all the centres, selection
of base year, compilation of base year prices, trial indices; and
{iv}
consider any other relevant issue{s}/matter as may be necessary.
Secretarial assistance to the Standing
Tripartite Committee will be provided by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of
Labour. The Committee may also enlist the assistance of subject matter
experts within and/or outside the Government and may co-opt members according
to necessity
