ISLAMABAD, Jan 13: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has asked the officials of the finance ministry and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to ensure the compilation of price data, price indices and inflation rate in time and in line with international standards and practices to avoid criticism.

Informed sources told Dawn on Saturday that the officials had also been directed to ensure conversion of the Statistics Division into Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, an autonomous entity, by February 28 in order to complete all kinds of data and surveys in a ‘most transparent manner’.

The federal cabinet has already approved the setting up of the new autonomous body through the merger of three attached departments of the Statistics Division namely the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), Population Census Organisation (PCO) and Agricultural Census Organisation (ACO).

The new entity will be headed by the chief statistician with five professional members to be recruited through open competition among Pakistanis working in the country and abroad. New law to this effect has been drafted by a legal expert and circulated among all the stakeholders for their comments.

While the ministries of industries and commerce as well as the Establishment Division have forwarded their comments about the draft, the finance ministry and the provinces have yet to do so, causing delay in the conversion of the Statistics Division into the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

"We have been told to expedite the process, and this is likely to be done by next month," said a source. Once the reply from the ministry of finance and the provinces arrived, the issue would be referred to the law ministry for final vetting of the draft, it added.

"Hopefully the whole restructuring process will be completed by end June, which will provide a strong professional base for statistics in the country," the source said.

The restructuring of the federal statistical system involving merger of the attached departments of the Statistics Division and revision of statistical laws was approved by the cabinet on July 12, 2006. To accomplish the task, a project manager and a legal expert have been appointed in collaboration with the DFID of England.

The source said that the coverage of data on trade had been improved to cover all custom entry and exit points at the national level. Arrangements had been made for release of data on import and export of services, it added.

However, delay in case of industrial statistics, it said, was caused by untimely reporting by industrial units to the concerned authority which needed to be addressed.

The FBS also collects data in different socio-economic sectors through different census and surveys. In order to improve the credibility, timeliness and availability of data, the division has taken various steps such as capacity-building of officers, collaboration with donors, public-private partnership and other measures including increase in supervision of field operations.

The Training Wing of the Statistics Division has been made effective by providing computer laboratory and other equipment through grant assistance from international donors. Fourteen out of 27 courses have been conducted by international experts under grant from donors. Also, 474 officers have been trained through these courses.

The price statistics include collection of retail and wholesale prices and computation of three indices namely Consumer Price Index (CPI), Wholesale Prices Index (WPI) and Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)."The CPI/inflation rate computed by the FBS is in line with international recommendations but a common man who is not aware of the whole system of computation of indices, doubts the inflation rate," said an official.