AICPIN FAQ 3

11. What type of details were collected through family budget enquiries?

Mainly two schedules, one family budget schedule or  Schedule-A and the other

House Rent Survey Schedule or  Schedule-B1, were canvassed amongst the working class 5

families selected for the survey. In the Schedule-A, besides identification particulars of the

family, the information on demographic particulars of the family such as sex, age, marital

status, education standard, economic status, activity status, industry/occupation etc., sources

of income of the family such as family members’ enterprise, paid employment, selfemployment, net rent, other incomes, other receipts were collected, on the one side. On the

other side, details of the family expenditure incurred not only on consumption items such as

cereals, pulses, oils, fats, meat, fish and eggs, milk and related products, condiments and

spices, vegetables and fruits, sugar, honey, non alcoholic beverages, other intoxicants, fuel

and light, house rent and related charges, repairs, clothing, bedding and footwear, medical

care, personal care, education and reading, recreating and amusement, transport and

communication, personal effects, washing, furniture, household appliances, expenditure

incurred on ceremonies but also on non consumption items such as subscription, taxes,

litigation, remittances sent to dependants, savings and investments loans repaid, etc. were

collected. In addition, details relating to indebtedness of the working class families such as

purpose of loan, amount of loan, source of loan, rate of interest paid, nature of security given

etc. were collected. In the Schedule-B1, besides identification particulars of the family,

details of the dwelling in which the family resides such as location, type of building, number

of living rooms, provision of kitchen, bath room, latrine, varandah, courtyard, drinking water

source, furniture, other appliances, rent particulars, category of house such as rented/owned/

free, particulars of tenancy expenditure incurred on electricity/water/sweeper charges, local

taxes, repairs, etc., were also collected. Details collected in the Schedule-A formed the basis

of weighting diagrams and the details collected in Schedule-B1 formed the basis of 6 monthly

house rent surveys for determining variations in rents over time.



12. How was it ensured that details had been collected with due accuracy?

The responsibility of fieldwork was given to trained staff of NSSO. They weresupplied detailed instructions on each of the items given in the schedules. In addition, zonal training, conferences were convened by Labour Bureau for the officers of NSSO wherepoints of doubt were also clarified. The NSSO officers conducted the primary supervision ofthe fieldwork, which was supplemented by Labour Bureau officers. Besides, the detailedscrutiny of the filled-in schedules was also done by Labour Bureau as regards inconsistency in specified codes, total and sub-totals. The results were also examined from the point ofview of prevailing prices and results of earlier surveys. All inconsistencies reconciledwith NSSO before finally adopting the data. The expenditure details wherever relating to 6 households (i.e. family & owners staying with the family) were adjusted for the family by

multiplying with the factor f÷(f+e) where ‘f’ stands for family members and ‘e’ stands forother members of the household. In this connection, it may be mentioned that expenditurereported on ceremonies was suitably split into two parts i.e., for family members and nonfamily members. Only the portion of expenditure relating to family members was accounted or in the index against relevant items. The survey was spread over 12 months so as to account for seasonal variations in expenditure of working class families. A detailed tabulation plan was then prepared and given to Regional Computer Centre (RCC), Chandigarh along with instructions for each entry in the tables for tabulating the data as per the approved estimation procedure. This involved blowing up of sample results to entire population using sampling fraction. The tables received from RCC were also checked for inconsistencies by

Labour Bureau before adopting them for preparation of weighting diagrams.



13. Which items were directly included for price collection and index compilation

and how?

The list of items on which working class families reported expenditure were divided

into two categories namely consumption items and non-consumption items. The nonconsumption items included gifts and charity, ceremonies, fines and penalties, trade union

subscription, income tax, road tax, municipal tax, interest paid, litigation, remittances to

dependants, precious ornaments, land and building, live stock, life insurance premium,

provident fund contribution, savings, chance game and lottery, revenue stamp, loans

advanced, investment in shares and securities, etc. All other items were normally treated as

consumption items and were included in the weighting diagram of the concerned centre.

However, some items which could not be satisfactorily priced overtime were not directly

retained but imputed to related items such as  other cereals, mixed pulses, prepared meals,

dung cake, readymade garments, library charges, hostel charges, pocket expenses, etc. There

were some other items on which expenditure reported was negligible and number of families

reporting expenditure were not significant, such items were also imputed to other related

items.

The total expenditure on consumption items was divided into 6 main groups namely

Food; Pan, Supari, Tobacco & Intoxicants; Fuel & Light; Housing; Clothing, Bedding &

Footwear; and Miscellaneous. The Food group was further subdivided into 8 sub-groups

namely Cereals & Products; Pulses & Products; Oils & Fats, Milk & Products; Meat, Fish

Eggs; Condiments; Spices; Vegetables ; Fruits; and Other Food. The Miscellaneous group 7

was also sub-divided into 5 sub-groups namely Medical Care; Education, Recreation &

Amusement; Transport & Communication; Personal Care & Effects; and Other

Miscellaneous Items. For imputing items to related items, the method used was to add the

expenditure to the items having a broad similarity of price behaviour, satisfying similar want,

produced under the same manufacturing process, etc. Where it was not possible to impute

expenditure to a particular item, it was imputed to a group of items called section, sub-group

or group. This was done on the assumption that group of items taken together reflect the price

behaviour of item(s) imputed. All items which had at least one percent expenditure reported

in the sub-group/group expenditure and/or had significant families reporting expenditure,

could be priced over time satisfactorily were directly retained in the index. It has been found

that each centre has more that 100 items directly retained for price collection. The percentage

expenditure on each item in the sub-group/group represents its weight. Similarly, the

percentage expenditure on sub-group/group in the group/total consumption expenditure

represents their weight. The entire set of weights so prepared is called weighting diagram of

the centre. It may be clarified that with change in coverage and changes in consumption

pattern, relative weights of different groups cannot be expected to be same in old and new

series.



14. Whether durable items and intoxicants were included in the index?

No difference was made between durable or non-durable items. The items were

included in the index if they satisfied the criteria given above. Similarly no distinction was

made between essential and non-essential items. Intoxicant items were included in the index,

if they were preferred by the working class in a centre and there was no prohibition in force

on sale of these items.



15. Which markets and shops were selected for regular price collection?

For selection of markets, Labour Bureau officials visited all the centres and contacted

representatives of employers organisations, workers unions and concerned State

Governments officials to identify areas of working class concentration and retail markets

catering to them. Thereafter, these markets were visited to verify availability of various items

being consumed by the working class on a regular basis. After these studies, such a number

of markets were selected which represent purchases of larger segment of the working class of

the centre. The markets once selected are not changed in the life span of an index series to

maintain comparability of current prices with base prices. In each of the selected markets,

two shops were selected for each of the items retained in the price schedule so as to account 8

shop to shop variations of the markets. In addition, two more shops were selected and kept as

reserve so that prices could be collected from these shops in case of non-availability of any

item from selected shops. Keeping in view the earlier experience about frequent nonavailability of clothing varieties, it was decided to select retail mills shops wherever possible

for price collection of clothing items on the presumption that price trend revealed by these

shops will represent price trend of the clothing items of the centre. For collecting details

relating to ration items, four ration shops were selected from each market provided they were

available. While selecting the shops, factors like co-operation of the shopkeeper, regular

availability of the stocks, predominantly retail transactions was also kept in view. The shops

once selected are changed only in rare cases such as change of business by shopkeeper to

avoid spurious variations in prices.



Source:www.labour bureau.nic.in