BPS to conduct detailed census on informal sector

BPS to conduct detailed census on informal sector

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) will
conduct a detailed census on the Indonesian informal sector in
October as a follow-up to its nationwide economic census last
December, BPS chairman Sugito said.

Speaking to reporters after opening an integrated training
course of the state statistics agency in Cisarua, 50 km south of
here, Monday night, Sugito pointed out that the follow-up census
will take about two months.

"The informal sector plays an important role in our economy.
In order to get the real picture of that sector, we'll survey 1.1
million nonformal businesses all over Indonesia," he noted.

He said that there are very many small entities in the
informal sector and his office will choose 1.1 million of them.

"From our experience in taking a census, what's important is
that we need to improve the supervision mechanism of such an
economic survey," he said, adding that his agency will involve
45,000 field officers for the census.

The statistics agency conducted its second national economic
census last December and in January this year. The first economic
census was held in 1986 by the agency.

Sugito mentioned that during last year's census, his office
still found a number of shortcomings, such as unchecked
questionnaires and dubious data.

"We found that the percentage of deviations last year was
between 0.10 and 0.14 percent in several provinces. That number
is meaningless, but it's disturbing," he said.

He noted, however, that such shortcomings should not become
the subject of concern because all data from respondents are
edited first before being fed into a computer.

Commenting on the World Bank's proposal last week that
Indonesia raise fuel prices on the domestic market, Sugito said
that any increase in fuel prices will certainly have an
inflationary impact on the economy because it would increase the
prices of several goods.

The World Bank, in its latest report on Indonesia issued last
week, urges the Indonesian government to raise fuel prices,
electricity tariffs, forestry fees and property assessments for
the collection of property tax, reduce public spending on power
generation and telecommunications, develop better sources of non-
tax revenues and speed up the prepayment of foreign debts.

The bank said that such steps are necessary to raise the state
budget surplus to as much as 2 percent of the Gross Domestic
Product.

Sugito, who admitted that he had not yet read the World Bank
report, said that the government should first consider the impact
of that proposal carefully before deciding to carry out the
bank's proposal.

He noted that the government has immediate no plan to increase
fuel prices nor electricity tariffs. "I don't think the
government will raise the prices, at least, until later this
year," he said. (13)