NATIONAL INCOME-The Money Illusion

NATIONAL INCOME The Money Illusion (By a Special Correspondent) DESPITE the fact that the report of the Working Group on Capital Formation and Saving in India headed by K N Raj has been with the Government now for about one year, the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) has come out with its 'quick estimates' of national income, consumption, saving, and capital formation for 1981-82 without showing any awareness of the report's existence. Whatever misgivings one may entertain with regard to the interpretations offered by the Working Group of the trends in saving and capital formation during the past three decades, it cannot be faulted for not pinpointing the nature of errors in the existing estimates made by CSO. The Group has made a series of recommendations in this regard, all of which deserve to be considered by the government and implemented. It is true that many of the suggestions made by the Group require comprehensive field surveys which will take time. But equally there are a large number of recommendations which could have been considered for implementation this year.