Govt launches new series for CPI-IW, no impact on dearness allowance

CPI-IW is used to compute DA of govt employees and industrial workers. The DA gets revised twice a year and is meant to adjust wage to the impact of inflation

The Centre will revise the base year for calculating the consumer price index (CPI) for agricultural and rural labourers next year — a move that will have an impact on the wages of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MNREGS) workers.

The government on Thursday launched the new series of CPI for industrial workers (CPI-IW) with a new base year of 2016. This is used by policymakers for tracking inflation and for fixing dearness allowance (DA) of employees and industrial workers.

“I expect the Labour Bureau, which is working towards modifying the base year for CPI for agricultural and rural labourers,