Centre steps in for clarity in annual trade data
To ensure more transparency in annual trade data, the Centre has decided to again offer two sets of data on exports and imports.
By Ratna Ganguli, TNN |
KOLKATA: To ensure more transparency in annual trade data, the Centre has decided to again offer two sets of data on exports and imports. The commerce ministry has asked the Director General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) to once again provide two sets of data on exports and imports from the current fidcal (’06-07), after a gap of six years.
Mandated by the ministry, the DGCI&S is now following the twin methodologies to disseminate two sets of data on annual trade. One of them pertains to provisional trade figures of the current year and those of last year. While the other consists of provisional trade figures of the current year and the latest available provisionally ’revised’ data of the previous year.
The objective of disseminating two types of information is to ensure more transparency and accuracy while computing the growth rates in export-import between the two comparable years, the ministry noted in a white paper which has been released by it recently.
This is not the first time such data is to be generated by DGCI&S. In fact, these data were available from the trade data computation wing of the commerce ministry till 1999-’00.
However, seeing some complicity in handling two sets of data processing, the ministry had since then asked it to go ahead with providing just provisional trade data of the current period as against the latest available 'revised' provisional data of the previous period. Such practice was followed from ’99-00 to ’05-06.
But following the detection in inadequacy of that method in giving a much more realistic picture of growth rates in merchandise trade during the comparable periods, the ministry now finds it appropriate to revert to the old computation system, prevailing prior to ’99-00.
There is expected to be wide fluctuations in growth rate of exports and imports depending upon whether the basis of comparison is between provisional figures of comparable periods, or between provisional figures of the current period and provisionally revised figures of the previous period.
Mandated by the ministry, the DGCI&S is now following the twin methodologies to disseminate two sets of data on annual trade. One of them pertains to provisional trade figures of the current year and those of last year. While the other consists of provisional trade figures of the current year and the latest available provisionally ’revised’ data of the previous year.
The objective of disseminating two types of information is to ensure more transparency and accuracy while computing the growth rates in export-import between the two comparable years, the ministry noted in a white paper which has been released by it recently.
This is not the first time such data is to be generated by DGCI&S. In fact, these data were available from the trade data computation wing of the commerce ministry till 1999-’00.
However, seeing some complicity in handling two sets of data processing, the ministry had since then asked it to go ahead with providing just provisional trade data of the current period as against the latest available 'revised' provisional data of the previous period. Such practice was followed from ’99-00 to ’05-06.
But following the detection in inadequacy of that method in giving a much more realistic picture of growth rates in merchandise trade during the comparable periods, the ministry now finds it appropriate to revert to the old computation system, prevailing prior to ’99-00.
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There is expected to be wide fluctuations in growth rate of exports and imports depending upon whether the basis of comparison is between provisional figures of comparable periods, or between provisional figures of the current period and provisionally revised figures of the previous period.
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