The Hindu Business Line : Industry urged to provide data to Govt on regular basis

The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in association with the Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised a workshop on "Introduction of new wholesale price index (Base 2000-01) Collection of Required Data" here.

The meeting was organised under the aegis of a project sponsored by the Office of the Economic Adviser, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Union Commerce Ministry. The purpose of the workshop was to elicit the support of the manufacturing units for supply of quality data to the Government, which will be used for compiling the WPI.

Mr N. Sreekumar, President of the Cochin Chamber, complimented the Government for contemplating to revise the price index by changing the base to 2000-01 as per the recommendations of the working group set up under the chairmanship of Dr Abhijit Sen, Member of the Planning Commission.

Reliable gauge

Mr Sreekumar hoped that the new series of WPI would serve as a reliable gauge of inflation and urged the industry to provide price information to the office of the Economic Advisor on a regular basis for use in compiling the new series of WPI.

Mr Samarendra Sahu, Additional Economic Advisor, Office of the Economic Advisor of the Commerce Ministry and the Member Secretary of the Working Group on New Series of WPI, said that wholesale prices, which broadly correspond to producer prices, represent bulk transactions generally at an early stage of trading. The changes in wholesale prices, both absolute and relative, influence a wide range of economic activities and a constant watch on price movements becomes necessary for the operation and regulation of current economic policies.

Cost monitor

In this context, he said WPI serves as a tool for measuring inflation and helps in formulation of credit and fiscal policies by the RBI and the Government. It also serves the business and industry sectors for monitoring cost escalation.

The structural changes taking place in the economy had led to the emergence of new products, disappearance of some of the old products, changes in the quality after 1993-94. To capture such changes, the Government has set up a working group.

The Working Group has decided to shift the base year from 1993-94 to 2000-01 and substantially expand the product basket to include over 1,200 products as against 435 products in the existing series.

New entrants

Further, the working group has decided to include for the first time in the history of WPI items manufactured in the SSI sector in view of growing importance of the sector in the economy.

Mr Sahu said that the basic purpose of the workshop was to explain the importance of WPI and to impress upon the industry associations and producer of various commodities to supply the price data to facilitate the compilation of the new series.

The Office of Economic Advisor, Department of Industry and Policy Promotion has already sent pro formas for price data to over 6,500 units in the organised sector and over 7,000 units in the SSI sector in the country. In Kerala, 236 units in the organised sector and 628 units in the SSI sector have been identified for supply of price data for the new series.

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