Working Group for Revision of WPI

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Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Commerce & Industry
27 JUN 2019 4:56PM by PIB Delhi

The Government of India has decided to constitute a Working Group for the revision of the current series of Wholesale Price Index (Base 2011-12). The composition of the Working Group is as follows:

1.	Prof. Ramesh Chand, Member, NitiAayog	Chairman
2.	Additional Director General, Economics and Statistics Division, National Statistical Office	Member
3.	Additional Director General, Field Operation Division, National Statistical Office	Member
4.	Deputy Director General, National Accounts Division, National Statistical Office	Member
5.	Deputy Director General, Industrial Statistics Wing, National Statistical Office	Member
6.	Economic Adviser, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance	Member
7.	Economic & Statistical Adviser, Department of Agriculture	Member
8.	Senior Economic Adviser, Department of Consumer Affairs	Member
9.	Senior Economic Adviser, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas	Member
10	Additional Commissioner, Tax Policy Research Unit, Ministry of Finance	Member
11.	Representative from RBI	Member
12.	Dr. SoumyaKanti Ghosh, Chief Economist, SBI Group	Member
13.	Dr. Surjit Bhalla, Economist	Member (Non official)
14.	Dr. Shamika Ravi, Member, Economic Advisory Council to PM	Member (Non official)
15.	Dr. Dharmakirti Joshi, Chief Economist, Crisil	Member (Non official )
16.	Shri Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management	Member (Non Official)
17.	Shri IndranilSengupta, Co-Head & Economist, Bank of America Merrill Lynch	Member (Non Official)
18.	Economic Adviser, Officer of Economic Adviser (Member Secretary )	Member

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.

The Chairman of the Working Group may co-opt experts / representatives of other agencies, as may be considered necessary.

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.

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