New Statistics Bill makes data submission
mandatory in an effort to improve the govt’s data collection ability.
New Delhi: Through a Bill passed by Parliament on Tuesday amid a crush
of other legislation, the Indian government has armed itself with the
power to put a person behind bars for up to six months for not
disclosing required information to the country’s statistical authority.
The new Collection of Statistics Bill, 2008, passed by the Lok Sabha on
23 December (the Rajya Sabha passed it on 19 December) is intended to
improve the data collection ability of the government. But it also
provides for a fine of up to Rs10,000 or a prison term, or both, for
anyone proven to have obstructed a statistical officer in data
collection.
The long-delayed Bill was first introduced in Parliament in May 2007
and then referred to a standing committee of parliamentarians for
further scrutiny. That group’s recommendations led to 32 amendments to
the Bill, minister for statistics and programme implementation G.K.
Vasan said while introducing the Bill in the Rajya Sabha.
The new Bill, when signed into law, will repeal the Collection of
Statistics Act, 1953.
Under the 1953 Act, providing corporate data—typically about prices,
production and capacity—was entirely voluntary and left open the room
for companies to ignore requests.
“Now, we can make data submission mandatory for individuals and
companies,” said Pronab Sen, chief statistician of India and secretary
at the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.
Sen had often pointed out that, for instance, the vital provisional
Wholesale Price Index published weekly is actually based on a meagre
20% data, thus reducing the reliability of the index. And home minister
P. Chidambaram, until recently India’s finance minister, has publicly
questioned the reliability of India’s official industrial output data.
“The new Act will provide more teeth to the statistical agency to
collect relevant data,” says Dharmakirti Joshi, principal economist
with credit rating agency Crisil Ltd. “After (economic) liberalization,
nobody was under compulsion to provide information. Hopefully, this
would improve the credibility of statistical indices.”
The new Act also toughens data security by providing equally punishable
provisions if data collection officers fail to maintain secrecy of the
information. It is unclear if this threat of a fine or imprisonment
will be enough for companies to stop worrying about whether
confidential data, now mandatory on request by the government, will be
leaked to business rivals by government officials.
India has a history of large companies being able to routinely obtain
even confidential government filings by rivals, with some large
publicly traded companies routinely boasting about their data
“acquisition” abilities and often openly supplying key documents
submitted by rival companies to the news media. Official organizations,
such as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, are notorious for
leaked documents and data leaks.
“I would only hope that the statistical authority does not reintroduce
the inspector raj. And, I think, it is extremely important that these
regulations and these rules are obeyed or managed in a manner in which
it does not lead to this kind of harassment,” said C. Rangarajan,
former Reserve Bank of India governor who also chaired the National
Statistical Commission that had advocated the new Act. He was speaking
in the Rajya Sabha.
Minister Vasan promised Rajya Sabha members that data collected from
companies wouldn’t be misused. “Informants have to furnish the truth to
the best of their belief to the data collectors, without any fear or
favour, or any apprehensions that the data could be used against them
either for taxation or for prosecution in other cases.”
Crisil’s Joshi says the onus will be on the ministry. “If government
wants information, it must respect its sanctity.”
http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/25233630/Now-prison-terms-for-data-del.html
Copyright © 2009 HT Media.
