Trade Survey , January 1997 - December 1997

NSS 53rd Round

The non-agricultural sector is an important and growing segment of the Indian economy. But statistics on the unorganised part of this sector are not available regularly in usable form. To bridge the gap, a countrywide census of all non-agricultural units employing at least one hired worker was undertaken in 1977 by the CSO in collaboration with the State Statistical Bureaus. This census
provided a list of all establishments (units having at least one hired worker) in the unorganised sector of economic activities. Using the frame provided by the Economic Census, a follow-up survey of small trading establishments employing five or fewer number of workers and relatively smaller trading units not employing any hired worker was conducted in the thirty-fourth round of the NSS in 1979-80.

The second Economic Census was conducted in 1980. It had a wider coverage than the earlier one in the sense that it covered the own-account enterprises (units without any hired worker are called Own-Account Enterprises or OAEs) also. In this census the establishments were further split into two categories : Directory Establishments (DEs) and Non-Directory Establishments (NDEs);
the former employed a total of six or more workers, while the l atter employed a total of five or fewer workers. Thus, the second Economic Census dealt with three categories of units, viz. DEs, NDEs and OAEs. This census provided a list of villages / enumeration blocks (EBs) giving a count of enterprises and establishments, which has been used by the NSSO as a frame for sample villages / EBs in its follow-up surveys. Two such surveys of units engaged in trading activities were taken up by the NSSO in its forty-first round (July 1985 to June 1986) and forty-sixth round (July 1990 to June 1991).

The third Economic Census was conducted in the year 1990. The coverage and the classification of the enterprises were the same as those of the second Economic Census. Using the frame based on the third Economic Census, a similar survey on the small trading units was undertaken by the NSSO in its fifty-third round during January to December, 1997.

In this round, the usual practice of hamlet group / sub-block formation was dispensed with. Instead, the whole fsu's (i.e. villages / blocks) were listed as first stage units. As a result, the workload increased manifold in the field. In a later decision of the Governing Council, a portion of the samples was curtailed from the original allocation. It was also decided that the villages with population 20,000 or more as per 1991 census omitted from the sample.

All the second-stage units (i.e. trading enterprises) were listed through a listing schedule. This list constituted the frame for drawing the required number of sample enterprises from each first -stage unit. The enterprises were divided into three enterprise classes on the basis of the number of workers employed, from each of which a certain specified number of enterprises were selected. Information collected through the listing schedule was used for calculating multipliers and for estimation o f the number of enterprises. The enterprise schedule was canvassed in the selected sample enterprises for collecting information on basic items like fixed assets, employment, purchase and sale values, other expenditure, value added and trade margins of commodities traded. Enterprises were selected in this round from three enterprise classes. The main characteristics on which information were collected are fixed assets, employment, purchase and sale values, other expenditure, other receipts, value added and trade margin of the traded goods. Reference period for collection of data was 'month' except for fixed assets and trade margin, where the reference period used was 'last one year'.

A maximum of 16 enterprises (OATEs and NDTEs only for schedule 2.41.2) were surveyed.The schedule 2.41.2 consisted of 10 blocks.

All the enterprises covered by the two-digit codes (called divisions) 60 to 68 and three-digit codes (called groups) 040, 052, 053, 054, 059, 060, 061, 063, 069 and 890 under the revised National Industrial Classification, 1987 (NIC, 1987) were considered for this survey. Strictly speaking, the activity codes 040,052,..,069, which represent various free collection activities for sale, should be covered under agriculture. But value added for such activities were not regularly available from official sources. As such, they were covered under unorganised trade since the NSS 34th round.

Important concepts and definitions followed in the survey of NSS 53rd round were :-

Trade : Trading is defined as an act of purchase of goods and their disposal by way of sale without any intermediate physical transformation of goods. The activities of intermediaries who do not actually purchase or sell the goods but arrange their pur­chase and sale and thereby earn remuneration by way of brokerage or commission, are also covered for the purpose of trade sur­vey. Distributive agencies which undertake trading activity on commission basis are also included. In addition, the activities of free collection for sale of honey and forest products like gathering of fodder, grass, etc.; free hunting, trapping and game propagation for commercial purposes; free collection for sale of fish, prawns, crabs and oysters; free collection for sale of waste paper, ash, rags, coal, etc., are also treated as trade for this survey. Separate and distinct trading units of manufacturing concerns like sale shops of Delhi Cotton Mill, Bombay Dyeing, Bata Shoe, etc., and activities like selling of fruit juice, sugar­cane juice, etc. which involve a process of transformation mar­ginally are also covered under trade.

Trading enterprise: A trading enterprise is an undertaking/unit engaged in trade. An enterprise may be owned and operated by a household or by an institutional body. The activi­ties of the enterprise may be carried on by household members and/or by hiring outside labour.

Own-account enterprise: An enterprise which is run by house­hold workers only (i.e. without any hired worker on a fairly regular basis ) is termed as an own-account enterprise. If such an enterprise is engaged in trading, it is termed as an own-account trading enterprise (OATE).

Establishment: An enterprise which is employing at least one hired worker on a fairly regular basis is termed as an establishment.

Non-directory establishment : An establishment employing fewer than six workers (household and hired workers taken togeth­er) is termed as a non-directory establishment. If such an estab­lishment is engaged in trading activities, it is termed as a non-directory trading establishment (NDTE).

Reference period : It means the period for which informa­tion on a particular characteristic is collected. In the NSS 53rd round only one reference period, viz. 'month' was used to collect the data. However, data on trade margins and net addi­tions to fixed assets were collected for the last one year.

Identification particulars of sample enterprise were recorded in Blocks 0 and 1.
Block 0 contained items on which descriptive identification of sample enterprise were written whereas Block 1 was meant for coded identification particulars of the sample enterprise. Particulars of operation and some background imformation about the sample enterprise were collected in Block 2.
Blocks 3 was meant for for collecting information on employment particulars.
Account of commodities purchased and sold during the month weree recorded for 73 specified commodity groups through Block 4. Block 5 recorded the expenditures of the enterprise excluding the commodities purchased. Surplus or profit of the enterprise were also be collected in Block 5.

For the first time, in Block 6 Gross Value Added during the reference month were calculated in the schedule itself in this round.
In Block-7 recorded the trade margins for the same set of 73 commodity groups specified in Block 4.

Particulars of Field Operations were recorded in Block 8, whereas in Blocks 9 and 10 recorded the remarks by the investigator and comments by the supervisory officers.