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| Sunday, 19 December 2004 |
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Dodging industrialists dog Census by Gamini Warushamana Due to lack of cooperation of industrial corporates of the country the Sixth Industrial Census which commenced early October faced many obstacles and lagged far behind the scheduled time, Director of industrial division of Census and Statistics, D.C.A. Gunawardana said. Many of the industrialists have refused to declare information or have provided false information. This census was held after 20 years and therefore was very crucial to the policy-making process. A census the only source that provide indicators of performance of the industrial sector, data on the structure of the industries and benchmark information to evaluate projects in the industrial sector. It is also the only way of making a comprehensive register of industries that is essential for future sample surveys, Gunawardane said. Census data is very important for industrialists themselves as they can compare their position and competitiveness with other countries. If we have correct figure of the country's total production of any industry, individual establishment can find its market share. At a census, all important informations of the industries are collected by very extensive questionnaires designed according to three fields, he added. All citizens are legally bound to declare required information in a census under the Census (Amendment) Act, No.16 of 1981. According to the Act, any person who refuses to answer or provides false information shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction before a Magistrate be liable to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding five thousand rupees or both. But the department is not in a position to take legal action against those who refuse responding. A large number of industrialists or nearly 30% of the selected establishments remain to be covered. To take legal action against all of them the department would have to open a separate legal division. Another factor is financial constraints. The department is trying to persuade the industrialists by making them aware about the importance of the data and the confidentiality of the data collected. The same Act provides legal protection for the industrialists. The data collected on statistical purposes cannot be used in income tax or any other government requirements, Gunawardana emphasised. The census of industry by Gaminihas two stages - the preparation of a comprehensive list of industrial establishments of the country and collection of information. The listing operation was completed by the end of 2003. For the census purposes industrial establishments have been classified into two sectors as small industries and medium and large industries. Establishments that number less than ten persons engaged (employers, employees, unpaid family workers) are classified as small industries. Establishments that engage ten or more persons are classified as medium and large. However these classifications are based on the convenience of data collection. There is an on-going debate on these classifications, and Gunawardana said that policy makers should decide and request the classifications they need. Much valuable information has been revealed from the listing operation of the census. Accordingly there are 121,426 small industrial establishments in the country and 285623 persons are engaged in these industries. The number of medium and large establishments is 9961 and there are 747828 persons engaged in this sector. The small industries sector of the census, however had limited itself to a sample survey in the data-collection stage. A sample of 16% has been selected and data will be released on a district basis. In medium and large sector all the establishments will be covered. The target population of the census is all industrial establishments in the country engaged in production of one class of homogeneous goods in the fields of mining and quarrying, manufacturing and the generation and distribution of electricity and water. The Department of Census and Statistics successfully completed a population census in 2001 and an agriculture and livestock census in 2002. |
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