Base year of CPI, GDP, IIP being revised

Chennai: The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has started an extensive exercise to revise the base year of important data, including the Consumer Price Index, GDP and Index of Industrial Production. The government also should use the data from GST and different schemes to understand the health of businesses and people.

An extensive exercise for base revision of important economic statistics is being taken up at MoSPI. The exercise to change the base year of CPI from 2012 to 2024 has been initiated. An Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics has been set up to decide on the base year for GDP.

It is important that the base year of critical data series like the GDP, different price indices and volume indices like the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) are updated to the most recent feasible year at the earliest, the survey said. State-level variants of indices like IIP will help understand the emerging geographical patterns. Survey data to help understand private sector capital formation at regular intervals will also help policy formulation.

In order to contain food price inflation, the high-frequency price monitoring data for essential food items collected by different departments may be linked in such a way that the build-up of prices at each stage from the farm gate to the final consumer is quantifiable and monitorable. This will help improve the effectiveness of administrative action by the government to stabilise prices of essential food items. The ongoing efforts to construct the producer price index for goods and services may be expedited to have a greater grasp of episodes of cost-push inflation.

The granular GST data has great potential to analyse the health of businesses, screening of loan applications, provide support for cash flow-based lending, and understand the economies of different geographies deeply. The CAG is already in the process of establishing common fiscal data standards. This would eventually ensure the availability of standardised data through a public web portal for granular level fiscal statistics of the Centre and the States.

The large volume of data generated by schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which capture details such as hospital admissions, patients’ medical history or demographic details can be used for disease surveillance, preventive medication, etc. The Labour Bureau is also tasked with conducting five surveys relating to workers and employment.