NOTES 61 incapable of fulfilment because monetary wages would soon be eroded by a rise in prices or again by further rise in prices. If the Commission and the Congress Government are ''serious about mastering the economic crisis they should first diagnose the malady before deciding on the remedies. Because of the slow rate of wage incomes in real terms they are being eroded by rising prices. Clearly the Government lacks the heart to face the fact that its policies have failed to contain the impact of rising prices955 (Emphasis added). Without raising its finger at the absence of any policy of the Government on income and prices, which has only enabled the monopolists to amass wealth on the one hand and has virtually eroded the wages on the other, the Commission has raised the bogey of 'cost-push inflation' to deprive the working classes of a living wage. One wonders why such a high level Commission should be blind to the fact that the wages and salaries bill of the Central Government as a percentage of the total revenue expenditure has fallen from 33.5 per cent to 28.3 per cent over 1960-61 to 1970-71. A study by the Reserve Bank of India shows that wage costs as a proportion of value added by manufacture have also fallen over the years. "If the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank were in touch with the economy they should have known the elementary fact that wages do not constitute the dominant element in the economy nor are they the main factor behind the inflation^ (Emphasis added). Thus it is clear that the argument of wage increases causing further price rise is quite irrelevant to the present price inflation. On the contrary, "inflationary pressures have been haunting the economy ever since the last years of the Second Plan".7 And during this period the Government employees did not have any wage increase in real terms. This has led to a continued erosion in real wages of the workers and middle class employees. There is no clear indication of any move towards tapping the huge amount of black money which, "even on a conservative estimate, would exceed Rs 10,000 crores",8 towards plugging the leakage of foreign exchange amounting to more than Rs 250 crores every year; to stopping the concessions and inducements being allowed to monopoly houses on this or that pretext or under this or that committee's recommendation. Thanks to the thoroughly corrupt tax collecting machinery, there is sizeable amount of income tax arrears amounting to crores of rupees under the existing loopholes for tax evasion. Coupled with this is the enormous amount of resources frittered away in the luxury consumption and non-developmental projects and unnecessary expenditure on defence. One glaring fact of gross misuse of resources is the enormous increase in expenses on the Central Reserve Police (CRP) and Assam Rifles, the vastly expanded paramilitary establishments. Considering all this the plea of lack of resources is utterly unconvincing. It is natural, therefore, that several employees' organisations have