India (All India 3)
Official title
Consumer Price index for Industrial Workers.
Scope
The index is computed monthly and covers industrial workers'
families in 70 industrial centres throughout the country.
Official base
1982 = 100.
Source of weights
The weights and selected items were derived from a household expenditure
survey conducted during one year in 1981-82 among 32,616 families of
industrial workers in seven sectors (factories, mines, plantations,
railways, public motor transport undertakings, electricity generating
and distributing establishments, ports and docks) in 70 industrial
centres. The weights were not adjusted to take into account price
changes between the survey period and the base period.
The inclusion of items in the index basket depends upon the
average expenditure on each item reported by the working class families
in comparison with total consumption expenditure, and the number of
families reporting expenditure. Items with a negligible
reporting of expenditure are generally imputed to related items
in the same sub-group.
Weights and composition
| Major groups
| Number of items
| Weights
| Approximate number of price quotations
|
| Food
| 106 | 57.00 | ...
|
| Tobacco, pan, supari, etc.
| 16 | 3.15 | ...
|
| Housing
| 1 | 8.67 | ...
|
| Fuel and light
| 10 | 6.28 | ...
|
| Clothing, footwear and bedding
| 39 | 8.54 | ...
|
| Miscellaneous
| 88 | 16.36 | ...
|
| Total
| 260 | 100.00 | ...
|
Household consumption expenditure
The imputed value of income in kind, home
ownership, gifts, etc. was used. For part-payments, only payments made
the reference month were taken into account. Second-hand
purchases and trade-in of used goods were excluded. Expenditure
on social insurance, pension funds, licence fees, insurance of
goods, direct taxes, life insurance, remittances, etc. were treated
as non-consumption expenditure.
Method of data collection
Prices are collected for the different
goods and services, including electricity, gas, medical care,
education, transport and communication, by personal visits
from state government employees to the
most popular markets and retail outlets and to the controlled
shops (fair-price shops) and service establishments. Prices
are collected each week for price sensitive
items. Prices of items such as cinema tickets, furniture, utensils,
household appliances, transport, clothing and footwear, etc. are
collected once in a month as their prices do not change
frequently. The prices of items such as house-rent, school or college
fees and school or college books are collected once every six months.
All prices are collected on the fixed price collection day at the
same point of time. Net prices are used in the index. Free-market and
official prices (controlled prices) are used, combined in the ratio of
supplies of average requirements through the two sources. Black-market
prices, hire-purchase, second-hand purchase and import prices are not
taken into account in the index computation.
Housing
Data are collected every six months for rented, rent-free and
owner-occupied dwellings, including taxes, minor repairs and
white-washing charges incurred by tenants, but excluding charges such as
water, electricity, sweeper etc. The rent index is compiled using the
chain base method, in which rent movements are compared with those of
the last six months and not with the base period, as this method is
better for taking into account the depreciation of housing. New houses
are not included in the sample as it is felt that the relative movement
of rents for new houses does not differ from that of old houses.
In the case of owner-occupied houses, rents for comparable rented
dwellings are ascertained. If such houses are not available on the
market, the owned houses' index is taken to be the same as that
of rented houses.
Specification of varieties
Each item has been given fixed specifications including the variety,
quality, make/brand and units etc. The specifications were established
on the basis of local preference determined through market
enquiries.
Substitution, quality change, etc.
If the prescribed quality of an article is not available, a
substitute variety of equivalent or comparable quality is
selected. The old variety is brought back to the price schedule
if it reappears in the market. Adjustments are made for price
differences due to quality differences of the substitute. When
the substitute chosen differs in quality by as much as 100 per
cent (or when the difference is difficult to assess), the price
quotations for the new product are linked to those for the product
replaced.
Seasonal items
The weights for the vegetables and fruit sub-group are kept
constant in the food group, but monthly varying weights have been
worked out for various items depending upon their availability.
Weights of items not available in a month are imputed to
related items.
Computation
The index is computed according to the Laspeyres formula as a
weighted arithmetic average with fixed base, using weights
corresponding to 1981-82.
Generally, a simple average of all prices reported in a month is used
for each item. If more than one variety is priced for an item, a simple
average of price relatives is calculated for the item.
Indices are computed directly at the centre level, but the All-India
index is computed as a weighted average of all the centre indices, using
centre weights are based on the product of average consumption
expenditure per family and the number of families in each centre in
1981-82.
Other information
In addition to the consumer price index for industrial workers, two
other series are published: consumer price indices for agricultural
labourers and for urban non-manual employees. The former is computed by
the Labour Bureau and published in the Indian Labour Journal
; the
latter is computed by the Central Statistical Organisation, New Delhi,
and published in the Monthly Abstract of Statistics
(New Delhi).
Organisation and publication
Ministry of Labour, Labour Bureau: Indian Labour Journal
(Simla) (November 1988 and January 1989 issues for further
methodological information).
Idem: Indian Labour Year Book - Annual.
Idem: Pocket Book of Labour Statistics - Annual.
Idem: Indian Labour Statistics - Annual.