Set up new index for services, says panel

New Delhi: The Parliamentary Standing committee on finance on Wednesday recommended setting up a Service Price Index (SPI) to capture rising cost of services like education, healthcare and transport among others which have an adverse impact on the living standard of people.

The committee said that the consumer price index (CPI) used to calculate retail inflation in the country does not adequately capture the rising cost of the services which leave an adverse impact on the standard of living of the people.

“Consider it opportune that our statistical apparatus has an exclusive Service Price Index for essential services, so that the government can formulate policy responses accordingly,” it said.

The standing committee said that the indices complied and publish by the government approximate to the prevailing market conditions at the consumer level and get as close to his consumption pattern and standard of living as possible.

The committee said that a major gap in country’s statistical armoury is the absence of regular employment and unemployment data.

It said that official unemployment figures which are obviously out-of-date seem very unrealistic. “As revival and creation of employment is a stated objective of the government, it is imperative that accurate, current and reliable data on employment to assess employment situation is readily available to assess employment trends and to formulate appropriate policy responses,” said the committee. It was also concerned to note that there are 860 vacancies at the level of junior and senior statistical officer level in the statistical cadre in the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

“The existing statistical manpower is grossly insufficient to cope with the entire gamut of activities,” it said.

The panel recommended immediate filling up of all vacancies in the statistical cadre so that ministry's core competency is not compromised.