Labour survey in the current fiscal, says Chief Statistician

Chief Statistician of India T.C.A. Anant on Monday said the government will introduce a regular labour survey, both annual and a quarterly estimate, from the current fiscal.

"One of the biggest data gaps in the Indian economy is the absence of series of labour measurement. We are in a very advanced stage and hope that in the course of this financial year or sooner, we would be able to introduce a regular labour survey - both annual and quarterly estimate," he said.

Anant, who is also Secretary, Statistics and Programme Implementation, said one of the reasons for a full-fledged survey was because employment was complex.

Citing an example, he said: "There are segments that are dependent on trade and if the foreign trade is low, there is slow growth of employment. But there may be other segments of employment that needs to be captured. So we have to consider the entire picture."

He said the National Sample Survey Organisation would launch the survey. "There is a number of administrative procedures which have to be done (before the launch)," he said at the sidelines of a programme organised by MCC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Speaking about the readiness of collecting data under the upcoming Goods and Services (GST), Anant said: "I do know there is considerable amount of work which has been going on for a while. The discussion so far has focused on the fact that there is a need to shave the GST collection.

"I have been told by the officers who have been engaging in the work that the system will allow a better capture of entire value chain...if that is the case....GDP calculations, once the GST is in place, will be better."

Under GST, instead of collecting taxes at multiple places by multiple authorities, there will be one place of collection and the uniform tax will be collected either by the centre or by states.

Defending the methodology of estimating GDP in the new series using 2011-12 as a base year, he said that the new one was better than older which did not capture the entire value chain.

In the April-June period, India's gross domestic product grew 7.1 percent to Rs 29.17 lakh crore as against Rs 27.24 lakh crore in the same period last year while gross value added (GVA) rose 7.3 percent in the June quarter over the corresponding period of the previous year.

--IANS

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