India - Employment and Unemployment, July 2004 - June 2005, NSS 61st Round

Block 9: Household consumer expenditure: Household consumer expenditure is the sum total of monetary values of all goods and services consumed (out of purchase or procured otherwise) by the household on domestic account during a specific reference period. The definition of household consumer expenditure and the procedure for evaluating it will be the same as for Schedule 1.0.
A worksheet has been designed to collect information on household consumer expenditure in Schedule 10. The aim of this worksheet is to arrive at an approximate value of household consumer expenditure, which will serve as proxy for total expenditure that could be obtained through the detailed consumer expenditure Schedule. This approximate value of consumer expenditure would be used for classifying sample households into different levels of living for studying employment characteristics of households in different levels of living. The worksheet contains 36 different components of household consumer expenditure. Considering that an item group may contain different items, an attempt has been made to indicate, in parenthesis, some of the items included in a particular group, so as to facilitate collection of consumer expenditure data for an item group. Two reference periods, viz,. 30 days and 365 days, will be used to record consumption of different groups of items and those are indicated in the headings of columns (3) and (4).

The items of consumption have been classified into four groups and three different approaches, viz (i) consumption approach, (ii) expenditure approach and (iii) first-use approach, are followed for defining consumption of items. The different items in the groups and the approaches followed for defining consumption of the four groups are as follows:
group items in the group serial number of items in the worksheet definition of consumption
I food(other than 'cooked meals'), pan, tobacco & intoxicants and fuel & light 1 to 10, 11 (excluding cooked meals), 12,13 Consumption is the value of actual consumption during the reference period. The value of home-produce will be imputed at the ex-farm or ex-factory rate. This should not include any element of distributive service charges.
II cooked meals, miscellaneous goods and services including education, medical, rent, taxes and cess 11 (cooked meals only), 14 to 22, 24 to 26 Expenditure incurred on the item during the reference period.
III clothing and footwear 27 and 28 An item is consumed if it is brought into first-use during the reference period. The item may or may not be procured within the reference period. It can be procured by purchase, home-production, gift, charity, etc. Purchase and use of second hand clothing materials will also be included.
IV durable goods 29 to 37 Expenditure incurred on the items for purchase or towards cost of raw materials and services for its construction and repair during the reference period.
Sources of consumption: A household procures different items for its consumption by different ways. The different ways of collecting items of consumption are:

1) purchase
2) receipt in exchange of goods and services
3) home-grown/home-produced stock
4) transfer receipts such as gifts, loans, charities, etc., and
5) free collection

Imputation of value: If an item is purchased and consumed by a household, the value of consumption can be taken as its purchase value. But, the value of an item consumed out of commodities received in exchange of goods and services, home-grown/home-produced stock, transfer receipts or free collection requires imputation. The rule for imputation of value of consumption of commodities is given below:

1) the value of goods received in exchange of goods and services will be imputed at the rate of average local retail prices prevailing during the reference period. However, the judgement of the respondent about the price of the goods purchased in exchange is to be taken into account;
2) the value of home-produce will be imputed at the ex-farm or ex-factory rate. This should not include any element of distributive service charges;
3) the value of consumption out of gifts, loans, free collection, etc., will be imputed at the average local retail prices prevailing during the reference period;
4) the value of consumption out of purchase will be the value at which the purchase was made.


Special care is to be taken to ensure that the items which are consumed by the household out of home grown stock as well as from other sources like free collection, gifts, loans, etc. do not get missed out and necessary probing is to be done to include such consumption, if any, in the total consumption of the household.

Value of consumption during last 30 days
Item 1: Cereals & cereal products: This will include items like rice, wheat/atta, jowar, bajra, maize, barley, small millets and their products like chira, khoi, lawa, muri, maida, suji, rawa, sewai, noodles, bread (bakery), cornflakes, pop-corn, etc. and sattu prepared from barley/ other cereals. Besides these, tapioca, jackfruit seed, mahua, etc, which are consumed as substitutes for cereals will also be included here.

Item 2: Pulses & pulse products: This includes pulses such as arhar, gram, moong, masur, urd, peas, soyabean, khesari, etc. and pulse products such as besan, sattu, papad, badi, etc.

Item 3: Milk: This will mean milk as directly obtained from cow, buffalo, goat or any other livestock, milk sold in bottle or polypack. If the household purchases milk and prepares sweetmeats or transforms milk into curd, casein, ghee, etc. at home these will be included here.

Item 4: Milk products: This will include condensed/powder milk, curd, ghee, butter and also baby food, ice-creams, etc., the principal constituent of which is milk.

Item 5: Edible oil and vanaspati: Oil used in food preparation will be considered as 'edible oil' such as vanaspati, margarine, mustard oil, groundnut oil, etc. If oil is extracted by crushing purchased or grown oilseeds and the oil is consumed then the entry will be shown against this item.
Item 6: Vegetables: This item will include potato, onion, radish, carrot, turnip, beet, sweet potato, arum, leafy vegetables, tomato, peas, etc. It will also include green fruits like mango, watermelon, etc. consumed after preparing processed food.

Item 7: Fruits & nuts: This includes fresh fruits such as mango, banana, jackfruit, watermelon, pineapple, sugarcane coconut, guava, orange, etc. and also dry fruits and nuts.
Item 10: Salt and spices: It will include all edible salt irrespective of whether it is iodised or not. This item will also include spices such as turmeric, black pepper, dry chillies, garlic, oilseeds which are generally used in food preparations.

Item 11: Other food items: This will include prepared tea, coffee, tea leaf, coffee powder, ice, cold beverages, fruit juice, green coconut, biscuits, salted refreshments, prepared sweets, cake, pastry, pickles, sauce, jam, jelly, cooked meals, prepared rice, snacks, tiffin, food packets, etc. Food items for babies like Farex, Cerelac, etc. whose principal constituent is not milk will also be included here.

Item 12: Pan, tobacco & intoxicants: This will include pan leaf, finished pan, supari, lime, katha, bidi, cigarettes, snuff, cheroot, zarda, ganja, toddy, country liquor, beer, foreign liquor, etc.

Item 13: Fuel & light: This will include coke, firewood and chips, electricity, dung cake, kerosene, match box, coal, LPG, gobar gas, candle, etc. and petrol, diesel, etc. used for generating electricity.

Item 20: Rent/house rent: This item consists of rent for residential building and garage rent for private vehicle of the household. Amount last paid divided by the number of months for which the payment was made will be recorded here. The rent for government quarters will be the amount of house rent allowance (HRA) per month not paid to the employee plus the licence fee deducted per month from the salary for the quarters. Salami/pugree will not be considered anywhere in the schedule. No imputation of rent will be done for owner occupied dwellings.
Item 21: Consumer taxes and cesses: This will include road cess, chowkidari tax, municipal rates, water charges, etc.. Sometimes, while purchasing a new vehicle, life tax is paid. In such case, monthly average of tax & cess will be recorded against this item. Item 22: Medical expenses (non-institutional): This includes expenditure which were incurred on medical treatment not as an in-patient of a medical institution. This includes expenses on medicine, clinical tests, X-ray, pathological tests, payments made to doctor, nurse, etc., on account of professional fees. Expenditure on family planning appliances such as IUD, oral pills, condoms, diaphragm, spermicide. Expenditure incurred on MTP (medical termination of pregnancy) may be recorded against here if hospitalisation is not necessary. Similarly, hiring charges for ambulance may be recorded here if hospitalization is not necessary. Reference period for medical expenses (non-institutional) is 30 days.

Value of consumption during last 365 days

Item 24: Medical expenses (institutional): This includes expenditure which were incurred on medical treatment as an in-patient of a medical institution. Expenditure incurred on MTP (medical termination of pregnancy) may be recorded against here if hospitalisation is necessary. Similarly, hiring charges for ambulance may be recorded here if hospitalization is necessary. Expenditure incurred for clinical tests, X-ray, etc. will be recorded against this item if hospitalisation was necessary.

Item 25: Tuition fees and other fees: It also includes fees paid to educational institutions (e.g., schools, colleges, universities, etc.) on account of tuition (inclusive of minor items like game fees, fan fees, etc.) and payment to private tutor. Occasional payments to the school fund made on account of charities provided for indigent students and 'donations' generally will not be included here as these are regarded as transfer payments.

Item 26: School books and other educational articles: Expenditure on all kinds of books, magazines, journals, etc. including novels and other fiction will be covered under this item Expenditure on Internet other than telephone charges will also be covered here. Besides these, expenses on library charges, stationery, etc. will also be covered here.

Item 27: Clothing and bedding: In this item, information on value of consumption of all items of clothing and bedding during the last 365 days will be collected. When any garment is sewn at home by a household member, its value will be equal to the value of cloth only. No labour charges for sewing of the garment need be included unless the sample household itself is running a tailoring shop. Similarly, for a quilt made at home of which the materials (viz., cloth, stuffing, cotton, thread, etc.) were purchased the value of the materials used will be shown against this item. All second-hand clothing items, like dhoti, saree, ready-made garments, etc., purchased and brought into first-use will be recorded against this item.

Durables goods (items 29 to 37): Information on expenditure incurred for purchase and cost of raw materials and services for construction and repairs of durable goods for domestic use during the last 365 days will be collected in items 29 to 37. Expenditure will include both cash and kind. Purchase will include both first-hand and second-hand purchase. Only if some expenditure is incurred towards purchase of an item, may be in cash or kind or both, the item will be considered as purchased. Expenditure incurred on purchase of durable goods for giving gifts will also be included. In case of credit/ hire-purchase, the actual expenditure made during the reference period will be recorded.

4.9.25 It should be noted that the purchase of residential building and land, whether first-hand or second-hand, should not be entered in item 37, since such purchases are considered capital expenditure on real estate. Any new construction of building is also an expense on capital account and should not be entered in item 37. The total expenditure incurred by the household towards repairs and maintenance of dwelling unit (only) during the reference period would be entered against item 37.

4.9.26 Investigators should not spend too much time for filling up the worksheet. Unless the respondents themselves ask for clarifications, they are not to ask about quantities consumed item by item to arrive at sub-total figure. The idea is to fill up the worksheet in about half an hour per household. Experience shows that one can obtain a fair enough estimate of household consumer expenditure in half an hour per household.