CITU writes to labour ministry seeking release of AICPI-IW figures

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has sought the Union labour and employment minister’s intervention in the release of All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI - IW) for the months of February and March 2024.

“The All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers is one of the very important labour statistics as it is indispensable for the regulation of wages and dearness allowance for millions of workers and employees in the country. These indices are also used to measure inflation and other policy formulations,” the trade union said in a letter to the minister.

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The CPI - IW figures have not been released for the months of February and March and the labour bureau has not given any explanation for not releasing the indices on the stipulated dates.

“Due to this inordinate delay, the employees from the central public sector, including banks are losing their legitimate dearness allowance (DA) to be announced in the month of April, after taking the average of CPI - IW for the past three months, namely - December, January and February. It is essential to calculate the DA, so as to contain the continuous price erosion in the real wage rate due to ever increasing prices of essential commodities,” the letter reads.

The last CPI - IW figures were released on February 29 this year for January. The labour bureau, an attached office of the Union labour ministry, compiles and maintains the data and releases it on the last working day of the month.