From 50 Years Ago: Cost No Bar

Cost No Bar

A feature of the rise in the price level in the last year or so has been the fairly sharp increase in the prices of manufactured goods. This fact was evidently very much in the mind of the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Com­mission when, at a seminar in Delhi the other day, he comme[n]ted on the Tariff Com­mission’s price fixing policies. The cost-plus formula combined with the static view of costs taken by the Tariff Commission had, Gadgil suggested, contributed to the recent price rise. The Tariff Conmission and its methods of functioning will find few defenders, especially now when it has been converted into a purely bureaucratic body without even the formality or having an economist member. At the same time, however, Gadgil was plainly exaggerating the culpability of the Tariff Commission and understating that of overall economic policies, and industrial development policies particularly, for which the Government and the Planning Commission are responsible.