Govt may finalise base year revision for CPI, IIP, GDP by end of 2024

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is in the works to finalise the base year revision for consumer price index (CPI), index of industrial production (IIP) and gross domestic product (GDP) by end of the year, a senior government official privy to the mater said.

“As of now, a final time frame and a road map is not yet ready for the implementation of the base year revisions, but it is quite certain that the final call regarding the selection of the years for different indicators will be taken by the end of this year,” the official added. 

The government has already started the groundwork to update the CPI, IIP and GDP with the release of the latest household consumption expenditure survey (HCES) for August 2022-July 2023. The ministry is currently undertaking a market survey, a requirement to update the base year for CPI, as it is used to update the CPI basket. 

The results of the household consumption expenditure survey showed that the average spending on food items in rural India, as a share of total expenditure, fell to 46.38 per cent in 2022-23 from 52.90 per cent in 2011-12. 

Similarly, the average spending on food items by urban India was down at 39.17 per cent in 2022-23, against 42.62 per cent in 2011-12, according to the survey, which was released after 11 years. 

The ministry is conducting another round of the consumption expenditure survey for 2023-24, which is due to end in July, to test the robustness of the methodology.

TCA Anant, former chief statistician of India, says that it usually takes around at least two years for base revision to be finally implemented. 

“Since we now have the household consumption expenditure data as well. This is the best time to take a call on the issue of base year revision. If the decision regarding the base year revisions was to be made by the end of this year only, it is only in somewhere around 2026 that the decision would be implemented,” he added.