New PPI model in works, govt working on WPI base revision: DPIIT secretary

NEW DELHI: The government is working on a new model of the producer price index (PPI) to efficiently capture input prices in the economy, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said Thursday.

He also said the government is working towards changing the base year of the wholesale price index (WPI) from 2011-12 at present. Going ahead, the government plans to move from the WPI to PPI, in sync with most G20 economies.

Consultations with the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) have been done, he said.


“It has to go through a process, including National Statistical Commission (NSC) but we are on the job,” he said, adding that the government has taken expert advice from the IMF on the methodology.

While the process of procedural clearances is on, the secretary didn’t give a timeline.

Noting that there was also a request to change the base year of the WPI, he said this is also one of the issues that the government is considering.

In 2021, the DPIIT had issued a draft technical report of a working group, which had suggested revising the base year of WPI and addition of about 480 new items such as medicinal plants, pen drives, lifts, gymnasium equipment and certain motorcycle engines in the new series. The year 2017-18 was being considered as the new base year.

“Government, including MoSPI, looks at other statistical indicators, including the CPI and various other indicators. I suspect you can expect some sort of an update of the base year eventually, but whether there will be one particular base year or different…because our studies show that other countries have multiple base years for different types of indices,” Singh said.

Emphasising that the government will take an integrated view on all this but an announcement can come at different times, he said: “Unless we have a decision, I can’t really say”.

Singh said there will be a transitional phase where both the indices will be there but a call on that is yet to be taken.