Govt constitutes Working Group to revise base of WPI

New Delhi, Jan 2 The government on Thursday announced the constitution of a Working Group headed by NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand for revising the base of the current series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) from 2011-12 to 2022-23.

The Working Group has been asked to submit its final report to the Office of the Economic Adviser within 18 months.

The members of the group include representatives from the RBI, the Finance Ministry's Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Statistics, Department of Consumer Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. SBI Chief Economist Soumya Kanti Ghosh has also been appointed a member.

The non-official members include Economist Surjit Bhalla; 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 and Economist, Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The terms of reference of the Working Group will be to suggest the commodity basket of WPI and PPI (producer price index) with base year 2022-23 in the light of structural changes in the economy.

The group will review the existing system of price collection and suggest changes for improvement.

It will also decide on the computational methodology to be adopted for WPI / PPI and 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 working group will further examine the method of computing the linking factor adopted so far and suggest appropriate changes in the method of computing the linking factor, if necessary.

Besides, the working group can suggest any other improvements as may be necessary for enhancing the reliability of WPI / PPI.

The Chairman of the Working Group is permitted to co-opt experts of other agencies, as may be considered necessary.

Source: IANS