In a bid to revise the inflation indicators in the country, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) has announced the reconstitution of the technical advisory committee, or TAC, on statistics of prices and cost of living.
The revamped committee will advise the ministry on creation of new indices on consumer prices, wholesale prices and producer price index, which will help determine consumer inflation and wholesale inflation.
At present, the base year and basket of goods considered by India is over a decade old, with both following 2012 as the base year.
The government had in June released the full results of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022-23, which will determine the basket of goods for new consumer price index series.
The ministry is conducting two back-to-back surveys to verify the results, as it had to junk the 2017-18 results citing data inconsistencies.
The formation of committee on prices follows the announcement of the government to reconstitute Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics, which will help revise the GDP calculations.
The government plans to align the base year for GDP, CPI, WPI and other statistics.
Earlier, Moneycontrol had reported that the new GDP base is likely to be operational from 2026.
For CPI, the government is considering 2024 as the base year. In January, the government had started market survey, which helps determine shops from where the government will collect prices monthly.
The CPI and WPI statistics are released every month, while GDP data is released quarterly.
The new TAC is headed by Director General of Statistics as chairperson along with 21 other members.
It counts representatives of Niti Aayog, labour and commerce ministry, along with a few state directors as members. The committee also has representation from academia.
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