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Informist, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025

 

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--Govt sets up Working Group for revision of WPI 
--Govt: NITI Aayog's Ramesh Chand to head 18-member group to revise WPI 
--Govt: Group to suggest basket, methodology for WPI with 2022-23 as base yr 
--Govt:WPI Working Group to also suggest basket for PPI with 2022-23 base yr 
--Govt: WPI Working Group to submit final report within 18 months

 

NEW DELHI – The government has set up an 18-member working group for the revision of WPI to 2022-23 base year from the current 2011-12, the commerce ministry said in a release on Thursday. NITI Aayog Member Ramesh Chand will head the committee, which has been tasked with suggesting a commodity basket and deciding on the methodology to compute WPI.

 

Along with WPI, the working group has been asked to suggest a commodity basket for a new Producer Price Index, which will also have 2022-23 base year, and also its computational methodology, the release said. The current WPI series was adopted in 2017, when the base year changed from 2004-05.

 

The decision to revise WPI is in line with the government's other efforts to move to new series of other macroeconomic indicators such as CPI, GDP, and Index of Industrial Production. Informist had reported in May that the government was aiming to bring in new series for GDP, Index of Industrial Production, and WPI with 2022-23 as the base year by 2026.

 

The statistics ministry last week said that it will introduce the new CPI series by February 2026. The new CPI series will have 2024 as the base year. On Dec. 2, the government said that the GDP base year will be revised to the financial year 2022-23 (Apr-Mar) from 2011-12. Informist had previously reported that the statistics ministry plans to release the new GDP series from February 2026.

 

In July, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said that the government has finalised a Producer Price Index model, which has also been reviewed by the International Monetary Fund. However, the government has not set a timeline for the launch of the Producer Price Index, Singh had said.

 

The working group formed for WPI revision will also review the existing system of price collection and suggest changes for improvement, the commerce ministry said in the release. The terms of reference of the group also include, "to examine the methodology for compilation of PPI approved by Technical Advisory Committee on Statistics of Prices & Cost of Living and suggest further improvement in compilation and presentation and recommend roadmap for switch over from WPI to PPI," the release said. 

 

The working group includes State Bank of India Group Chief Economic Adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh, economist Surjit Bhalla, CRISIL Chief Economist Dharmakirti Joshi, Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Member Shamika Ravi, and Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Co. Managing Director Nilesh Shah. The group will also have representation from statistics ministry, the Reserve Bank of India and other government departments. 

 

The working group has been asked to submit its final report to the Office of the Economic Adviser within 18 months.  End

 

Reported by Shubham Rana

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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