After ‘hidden income’ claims, stats bureau vows to improve measurements
08/31/2010 Source: People’s Daily
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published an article on its Web site on Aug. 30 in response to allegations by scholar Wang Xiaolu that 9.26 trillion yuan of incomes were not represented in official statistics and expressed its willingness to jointly improve the measurement of residents’ income statistics with the help of the public.
Some scholars believe there have been a large number of omissions in residents’ income statistics. This led the National Bureau of Statistics to successively publish two signed articles on its Web site to discuss with scholars the income survey and the estimation methods.
The signed article by Wang Youjuan and Shi Faqi published on the Web site of the NBS on Aug. 30 pointed out that the NBS welcomed feedback from scholars and express willingness to further study the questions under discussion.
The article pointed out that after discussions, both sides agreed that the omissions in the current income statistics are mainly caused by two reasons. First, some high-income residents were not willing to accept the survey and second, some households that were surveyed may have evaded and understated the data.
The article also said that in regards to the phenomenon of some high-income residents not wanting to accept the survey, the NBS plans to adopt three methods to remedy and revise the statistical results.
First, it will use the existing personal income tax data to estimate the proportion and income level of the high-income group.
Second, it will invite global bank experts to study the data on the current ongoing large sample statistics of national urban households. Third, it will use the data of the sixth national census to comprehensively revise and evaluate the sample structure.
In regards to the problem of some households evading and understating data, the article pointed out that the NBS plans to send some anonymous survey questionnaires by mail to the surveyed general households in order to compare the proportion of omissions in the accounting process and to evaluate the deviation of the national income survey results.
