Commission Regulation (EC) No 2646/98 of 9 December 1998 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 as regards minimum standards for the treatment of tariffs in the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 1998-12-09
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, EU statistics, Eurostat, consumer price, harmonisation of prices, price index

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Official Journal of the European Communities

10. 12. 98

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2646/98

of 9 December 1998

laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC)
No 2494/95 as regards minimum standards for the treatment of tariffs in the
Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 of
23 October 1995 concerning harmonised indices of
consumer prices (1), and in particular Articles 4 and 5(3)
thereof,

After consulting the European Central Bank (2),

Whereas, by virtue of Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EC)
No 2494/95, each Member State is required to produce a
Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) starting
with the index for January 1997;

Whereas Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95
requires to ensure that the Laspeyres-type index formula
is applied consistently to all sub-indices or categories of
expenditure concerned; whereas their weights should
reflect appropriately the pattern of expenditure by the
index population;

and their underlying

Whereas HICP sub-indices involving tariff prices are, in
practice, either obtained directly from suppliers or
computed by the Members States based on data on tariff
prices
consumption patterns
provided by suppliers; whereas there is considerable scope
for procedural differences in the construction of sub-
indices where changes in the structure of tariffs are made
at the same time as changes are made to the tariff price of
a particular element to the extent that consumers are
obliged to make new choices in their consumption;
whereas it is therefore important to ensure that the rel-
evant basic information can be obtained as to ensure that
the resulting HICPs do not fail to meet the comparability
requirement of Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95;

Whereas, by virtue of Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No
2494/95,
the basic information for the production of
HICPs which should be obtained from the statistical
units, consists of those prices and weights which it is
necessary to take into account
to achieve
comparability;

in order

data should be obliged to allow observation of the prices
actually charged and to give honest and complete infor-
mation at the time it is requested;

Whereas by virtue of Article 4 of Commission Regulation
(EC) No 1749/96 (3), as last amended by Council Regula-
tion (EC) No 1688/98 (4), the HICP should be compiled
to include the price changes of a newly significant good
or service;

Whereas this Regulation should not require Member
States to carry out new statistical surveys;

Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are
in accordance with the opinion of
the Statistical
Programme Committee (SPC),

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Aim

The aim of this Regulation is to set down minimum
standards for the treatment of ‘tariff prices' in the Har-
monized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP).

Article 2

Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation:

1. a tariff is a list of pre-established prices and condi-
tions for the purchase and consumption of one and the
same good or service or of similar goods and services
that has been centrally fixed by the supplier, by the
government, or by agreement to exert influence on the
consumption patterns by means of appropriately
differentiated prices and conditions according to char-
acteristics of consumers, the level, the structure or the
timing of the consumption. Tariffs are not negotiable
for households;

Whereas, by virtue of Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No
2494/95, the statistical units called upon by the Member
States to cooperate in the collection or provision of price

2. a tariff price is a price within a tariff that applies to a
component element or unit of consumption of the
good or service in question.

(1) OJ L 257, 27. 10. 1995, p. 1.
(2) Opinion delivered on 8 July 1998.

(3) OJ L 229, 10. 9. 1996, p. 3.
(4) OJ L 214, 31. 7. 1998, p. 23.

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Article 3

Basic information

The basic information shall be all tariff prices and weights
which reflect the structure of the consumption of the
good or services according to the characteristics of the
consumers, the level, the structure or the timing of the
consumption.

Article 4

Data sources

1. HICP sub-indices involving tariff prices shall be
computed by the Member States from basic information
as defined in Article 3 provided by the supplier.

2.
The statistical units called upon by the Member
States to cooperate in the collection or provision of basic
information are obliged to give honest and complete
information at the time it is requested and allow the
organisations and institutions responsible for compiling
official statistics at their request to obtain information at
the level of detail necessary to evaluate compliance with
the comparability requirements and the quality of the
HICP sub-indices.

Article 5

Procedure

HICP sub-indices involving tariff prices shall be calcu-
lated using a formula which is consistent with the
Laspeyres-type formula used for other sub-indices. They
should reflect
the
changed expenditure of maintaining that consumption
pattern chosen by households prior to the given change
in the tariff. Where there is a change in the tariff and
where, after that change:

the price change on the basis of

1. a component element or a unit of consumption
remains unchanged with respect to its specification,
then the price for that element or unit according to the
old and the new tariff shall be directly compared and
the price difference taken into the HICP;

2. a component element or a unit of consumption
changes with respect to its specification, or a new
component element is added which does not consti-
tute a new good or service for the consumer, then the
price change shall be computed with weights corres-
ponding to the expenditure of preserving the pattern
of consumption applying during a period, up to one
year, preceding the change. The adjustments for speci-

fication changes shall be consistent with quality adjust-
ments made for other sub-indices;

3. a component element or a unit of consumption with a
new and distinct specification constituting a new good
or service for the consumer is added to the tariff, it
shall be treated as ‘newly significant goods and ser-
vices' as defined in Regulation (EC) No 1749/96. If the
expenditure on the new good or service is significant it
shall be taken into the index by linking from the
month when the new tariff comes into force using an
estimate of expected immediate consumption or
within a period of 12 months otherwise.

Article 6

Comparability

HICPs constructed following the procedures described in
Article 5 of this Regulation or following other procedures
which do not result in an index which differs system-
atically by more than one-tenth of one percentage point
on average over one year against the previous year from
an index compiled following those procedures, shall be
deemed comparable.

Any amendments of procedures and practices to secure
comparability as defined in this paragraph shall be imple-
mented at the earliest for the sub-indices following the
entry into force of this Regulation, and at the latest by
December 1998 and take effect with the index for
January 1999.

Article 7

Quality control

Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat)
with information on the procedures developed for the
treatment of tariff prices where these procedures differ
this Regulation,
from those specified in Article 5 of
before such procedures are used.

Member States shall also provide the Commission (Euro-
stat), on its request, with information on the procedures
used for meeting the requirement of minimum standards
established in this Regulation.

Article 8

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day
following its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Communities.

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This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
States.

Done at Brussels, 9 December 1998.

For the Commission

Yves-Thibault DE SILGUY

Member of the Commission