Central Statistics Office to create database for services exports

NEW DELHI: The government plans to create a database to monitor exports of services, which account for almost 60% of the country's gross domestic product and a large chunk of foreign exchange inflows.

The Central Statistics Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has formed an expert group to create a mechanism for regular collection and compilation of data on internationally traded services, a ministry official said.

Currently, the government completely relies on the Reserve Bank's estimates for service sector exports.

The expert group is chaired by Anwarul Hoda, Chair Professor of trade policy and WTO research programme at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

The Central Statistics Office ( CSO) along with ICRIER is already conducting pilot surveys on exports of health and education.

"The emphasis is on evolving the methodology for collecting data on services that are exported and plug the gaps in the current system," Hoda said.

The RBI gets its data from banks and foreign exchange dealers and holds surveys to find the extent of the trade, he said. This data often includes whole figures and does not include sectoral specifics such as the break up between shipping and insurance charges on traded commodities and thus may not reflect the actual value of exports.

The RBI releases provisional aggregate monthly data on India's international trade in services, with a lag of 45 days. The data is revised once the Balance of Payments (BoP) data is compiled, with three months' lag.

So, the provisional services exports data for April this year was released on June 15 and the BoP numbers for April-June quarter were released on September 30.

The CSO is expected to finalise a mechanism with data on exports of health and education within 3-4 months. Then the government will bring other services into the fray.

Economists welcome the move. "This exercise would help in better classification and identification of services being exported," said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist of rating agency CARE.