Govt forms working group to revise WPI base year from 2011-12 to 2022-23

The Union government has constituted an 18-member working group under the chairmanship of Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand to revise the base year the current series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) from 2011-12 to 2022-23.

The task before the working group is to suggest the commodity basket of WPI and Producer Price Index (PPI) with base year 2022-23 in light of structural changes in the economy. The group of experts will review the existing system of price collection and suggest changes for improvement. They will also decide on the computational methodology to be adopted for WPI / PPI and examine the methodology for compilation of PPI approved by the Technical Advisory Committee on Statistics of Prices & Cost of Living and suggest further improvement in compilation and presentation and recommend a roadmap for switch over from WPI to PPI.

The terms of reference for the committee also include an examination of the method of computing the linking factor adopted so far and suggest appropriate changes in the method of computing the linking factor, if necessary. It can also suggest any other improvements that may be necessary for enhancing the reliability of WPI/PPI.

The other members of the working group include four senior officials of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation -- Additional Director General, Field Operations Division, Deputy Director General, Economic Statistics Division, Deputy Director General, National Accounts Division, and Deputy Director General, Enterprise Survey Division.

Economic Adviser, Department of Economic Affairs, Adviser, Price & Marketing Division, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Senior Economic Adviser, Department of Consumer Affairs, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Chief Executive Officer, Goods & Services Tax Network, Representative from RBI and Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Chief Economist, SBI Group are the other official members.

The non-official members of the working group include Surjit Bhalla, Economist, Shamika Ravi, Member, Economic Advisory Council to PM, Dharmakirti Joshi, Chief Economist, Crisil, Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management and Indranil Sengupta, Co-Head & Economist, Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The Deputy Director General, the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), is the Member Secretary of the working group. The Working Group will have to submit its final report to the Office of the Economic Adviser in the next 18 months.