The government has put the draft rules in the public domain inviting comments almost a year after it amended the Collection of Statistics Act, 2009, as part of an effort to decriminalise certain provisions of the law.

The government could earlier initiate criminal proceedings for offences such as failing to produce books, documents and records, making false and misleading statements and destroying or mutating information, the Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Rules, 2023, shared on August 23, only suggest fines for these lapses.

The government collects data from individuals and corporates for various surveys it conducts, which are necessary for creating a database of statistics and updating macroeconomic data such as growth (GDP), inflation (CPI) and industrial production (IIP).

The new rules, which will replace those of the 2009 Act, say that the “appropriate government may appoint as many officers as may be required, not below the rank of statistics officers, as adjudicating officers to hold an inquiry and impose penalty under the provisions of the Act”.

It also proposes the setting up of an appellate authority to decide cases within 60 days of the date of filing of the appeal.

The amended Act, under the Jan Vishwas Amendments, imposes a maximum fine of Rs 1,000 on individuals and Rs 1 lakh on companies for refusing to supply information. An additional penalty of Rs 1,000 a day for individuals and Rs 5,000 for companies is also proposed for each day they refuse to provide the information.

The government is wrapping up the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24, the results of which will be released by the end of the year.

HCES helps update the CPI calculations, as it defines where households spend their money.

Besides, the government also conducts industry surveys to assess output and employment across enterprises.