It also provides similar punishment for government officials who fail to keep such data confidential.

The committee, headed by Ananth Kumar, is mulling the draft Collection of Statistics Bill 2007 that empowers the government to seek a range of data both from individual households and organisations on economic, demographic, social, scientific and environmental aspects.

The Collection of Statistics Bill 2007 introduced in Rajya Sabha in May last year would replace the Collection of Statistics Act 1953, under which data was collected for industrial and agricultural purposes. The new Bill will also cover the services sector and once made into a law, it would cover all new economic and other activities that have emerged in the past 17 years. The major difference between the existing Act and the proposed Bill is that the Act is restricted to industrial and commercial concerns while the Bill expands the scope to administrative records, individuals and households or any kind " of data that is required for public purpose". The committee seems to have taken note of the submissions of the ministry of steel over provisions for simple imprisonment for furnishing false information. " The proposed penalties of Rs 1,000 for an individual and Rs 5,000 for a company seem inadequate as a deterrent. At present, a major share of domestic steel production is accounted for by the secondary steel producers. Supposing the delay is by 30 days, he has to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 for each day. In steel sector even the smallest of producers would rather pay Rs 5,000 than give the data," the ministry of steel in its representation said. The committee would meet on March 12 to decide on the final provisions of the Bill.

The new Bill would give statutory powers to the National Statistical Commission ( NSC), making it an independent nodal body looking after all official statistics. NSC chairman Suresh D. Tendulkar said the statutory powers to NSC will allow unbiased flow of statistics, and give teeth to official data collection agencies like Central Statistical Organisation.