Q.Explain the difference between National Income at Market Price and National Income at Factor Cost.
National Income at Market Price values output at the prices actually paid by the final buyer — prices that include indirect taxes (such as GST) levied by the government and are reduced by any subsidy the government pays to keep a price low.
National Income at Factor Cost strips out this government wedge and measures what is actually earned by the owners of the factors of production — wages, rent, interest, and profit — for their contribution to production:
The distinction matters in practice: because indirect tax collections can rise or fall for reasons unconnected to how much producers actually earn, market-price figures alone can be misleading about producer income — factor-cost figures are the ones directly tied to factor incomes, and it is NNP at Factor Cost that India officially calls National Income.
Factor Cost = Market Price minus Net Indirect Taxes (Indirect Taxes minus Subsidies); Factor Cost reflects what producers actually earn, Market Price reflects what buyers actually pay.
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