Final decision on revising GDP base year to be taken within

Chief Statistician of India Pravin Srivastava on Monday said a final decision on revising the base year for GDP growth calculation will be taken in 2-3 months as the Centre is waiting for certain survey results.

Srivastava's statement came a day after the Congress criticised the BJP-led central government's plan to revise the base year from the current 2011-12 to 2017-18 for calculating the GDP growth.

"The 2017-18 (as the base year) was a decision taken early in 2016. We are waiting for certain results of surveys and on the basis of that, a decision will be taken on what the base year will be," Srivastava, also the Secretary to Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, said here.

A group of experts will discuss and a decision is expected in the next 2-3 months, he said.

Srivastava was speaking on the sidelines of a two-day conference of central and states statistical organisations here.

"It (2017-18 as the base year) had never been finalised. Normally, we do it in every five years. If we have to choose any base year, we need time to start surveys for that. The decision of 2017-18 was taken earlier to do surveys. Based on the surveys, we have to take the decision on whether it is a good economic year or not," Srivastava told PTI.

He further said, "We had earlier decided that 2009-10 was not a good year though surveys had taken place. When the results came out, it was realised that we had to shift the base year to 2011-12."