Govt sets up working group to revise WPI base year to 2022-23

The government has constituted a working group under NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand for the base revision of the current series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) with base 2022-23 from 2011-12.

The group will suggest the commodity basket of WPI and Producer Price Index (PPI) with base year 2022-23 in the light of structural changes in the economy, and review the existing system of price collection and suggest changes for improvement, the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement Thursday.

“The Working Group has been asked to submit its final report to the Office of the Economic Adviser within 18 months of issue of this notification,” the ministry said.


The current WPI base year 2011-12 series was launched in May 2017.

As per its terms of reference, the group will decide on the computational methodology to be adopted for WPI and PPI, suggest any improvements to enhance their reliability
and examine the methodology for compilation of PPI approved by Technical Advisory Committee on Statistics of Prices & Cost of Living and suggest further improvement in compilation and presentation and recommend roadmap for switch over from WPI to PPI.

PPI measures the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output. The prices included in the PPI are from the first commercial transaction for many products and some services.

It has also been tasked to examine the method of computing the linking factor adopted so far and suggest appropriate changes in the method of computing the linking factor, if necessary, according to the statement.

Officials from the ministries of finance, statistics and programme implementation, commerce and industry, and consumer affairs, among others are members of the group.

The non-official members include Economist Surjit Bhalla; Shamika Ravi, Member, Economic Advisory Council to PM; Dharmakirti Joshi, Chief Economist, Crisil; Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management; and Indranil Sengupta, Co-Head and Economist, Bank of America Merrill Lynch.