New CPI series could track online grocery prices

Stats ministry moves a step closer to tracking online prices

The growing uptake of quick commerce in India after the pandemic has also caught the government’s attention, with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) considering prices from quick commerce portals as part of its new consumer inflation series.

Sources told Moneycontrol that MoSPI has moved closer in its endeavour, with one of the players responding to its queries and asking for more information a year after the ministry sent queries.

The ministry will collect price information from quick commerce platforms for the revised consumer price index series the government plans to introduce.

“We are asking for prices on these platforms to capture online price trends,” said a person familiar with the developments.

The process of collecting product prices, according to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), is underway and is likely to be completed by the end of the year.

The HCES is used to define shares of items in the consumption basket, which are then used to calculate consumer inflation for both rural and urban areas.

India’s current consumer price index is based on the 2011 HCES survey. The CPI has been due for revision for over a decade now. A new HCES was conducted in 2022-23, the results of which were released earlier this year.

The new HCES found that the share of food, which accounted for nearly half of the spending in 2011, had declined in 2022-23.

The new CPI, based on HCES, is likely to be more comprehensive than the 2011 series, with the number of items tracked by the ministry almost doubling from 299 items tracked at present.

The new CPI calculations also track spending on items like e-commerce, PlayStations, mobile phone accessories like Bluetooth earphones and online video subscriptions.

On the other hand, the old CPI series tracks expenses on items like VCR players and bullock cart rides.