The Union Government India has constituted a Working Group for the revision of the current series of Wholesale Price Index (Base 2011-12). Pro. Ramesh Chand-Member NITI Aayog, has been appointed chairman of this working group.
The Office of Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade will be the nodal office for the Working Group and will process the report / recommendation of the Group for further necessary action.
The Terms of Reference of the Working Group are:
- To select the most appropriate Base Year for the preparation of a new official series of Index Numbers of Wholesale Price (WPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) in India.
- To review commodity basket of the current series of WPI and suggest additions / deletions of commodities in the light of structural changes in the economy witnessed since2011-12
- To review the existing system of price collection in particular for manufacturing sector and suggest changes for improvement.
- To decide on the computational methodology to be adopted for monthly WPI/PPI.
- To examine the existing methodology of compilation of PPI approved by Technical Advisory Committee on Series of Prices and Cost of Living and suggest further improvement in compilation and presentation. The Working Group may recommend roadmap for switch over from WPI to PPI.
- To examine the method of computing linking factor adopted so far and suggest appropriate change in method of computing linking factor, if necessary.
- To suggest any other improvements as may be necessary for enhancing the reliability of the official series of WPI / PPI.
Why a new working group?
- The current series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) with 2011-12 as base year was introduced in May 2017. Since 2011-12, significant structural changes have taken place in the economy. Therefore, it has become necessary to examine the coverage of commodities, weighting diagram and related issues pertaining to the existing series of index numbers of Wholesale Price Index.
- Accordingly, Government has constituted the Working Group for the revision of current series of Wholesale Price Index (Base 2011-12) under Chairmanship of Dr. Ramesh Chand, Member, NitiAayog.
