40 YEARS AGO

Expert Committee Reveals: Labour Bureau Also 

Responsible for Price-Index Fraud

THE Expert Committee on Consumer Price-Index Numbers for Delhi has submitted a report to the government according to which the price-index in Delhi was found to be inaccurate by about eight per cent. This was the first Expert Committee appointed by the government to go into the consumer price-index compiled by the Labour Bureau of the Union Labour Ministry.

Earlier, Expert committees were appointed by the Maharashtra and Gujarat governments to find out the extent of inaccuracies in the price-indices for Bombay and Ahmedabad. When these committees revealed serious fraudulent practices resorted to keep the index at a lower level, Labour Bureau officials claimed that inaccuracies existed only in the indices compiled by the state governments while the Labour Bureau series were based on scientific methodology.

The Expert Committee Report for Delhi has now exploded this myth. Beyond any doubt, the Labour Bureau also was manipulating statistics in order to deprive thousands of workers in Delhi of a part of their hard-won DA. The Expert Committee, however, has only partially exposed the fraud. Delhi trade unions have proved by giving factual data that the index was inaccurate by more than twenty-five per cent.

The Labour Bureau compiles price-index for a large number of centres in the country. These indices are taken as the basis for compiling the all-India index. The report of the Delhi Committee has proved the need to rectify the price-indices in various centres which will also push upwards the All-India Consumer Price-Index Number.

Central government employees as well as workers employed in a large number of establishments like banks, sugar factories, etc are paid DA on the basis of All-India Consumer Price-Index Numbers. Lakhs of employees have thus been denied all these days a higher quantum of DA by deliberately keeping the index down Workers in other centres where price-indices are no rectified are also paid less DA than they deserve even according to various awards. A powerful movement by these employees alone can get indices in their respective centres rectified as early as possible.

The Labour Bureau has introduced a new series based on 1960 without consulting the local unions. The technical committee appointed for the purpose by the government did not include any trade union nominee. These new series have been introduced without rectifying the older series, hence they are based on unscientific foundations – with the help of an arithmetical conversion factor price-indices for the earlier series are being computed.

This is the biggest fraud perpetrated against the working class and the white-collared employees. The government has miserably failed in holding the price-line and workers are punished for the failures of the government with denial of adequate DA. Therefore, unless reliable price indices are compiled, the future of the DA of a large number of workers is not safe in the hands of officials who are manipulating the indices.

The union and state governments are deliberately postponing the issue of appointing expert committees. Two years have passed since the exposure of the Bombay and Ahmedabad indices but the government has been extremely slow in appointing committees in other centres. Only when workers threaten to go on strike, that the government moves in the matter.

In August this year, workers in Calcutta gave a strike notice. The state labour minister immediately assured the workers that the state government would strongly recommend to the union government to appoint an expert committee and if the centre failed to do so the state government would take steps in the matter. This assurance was obviously given to hoodwink the workers, since the expert committee were appointed by the state governments and not by the union government.

When the question was raised with the union government the workers’ representatives were told that it was the state governments’ responsibility. The West Bengal government has not yet taken steps to appoint such a committee. This is just one example of the dilatory tactics adopted by the government. The attitude of other state governments is not any different.

The Labour Bureau is reported to be organising a course on the method of compiling consumer price-index numbers. Some nominees of trade unions are also likely to participate in the course. The real mistake in the price-index is not of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division or of compiling percentages it lies in the deliberate manipulation of data for keeping the index down in order to suit the requirement of the employers and the government, which is the biggest employer in the country.       

--- People’s Democracy, November 28, 1965