Lok Sabha Question No. 5683 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-04-06
Subject: Consumer Expenditure Survey
Ministry: STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION
Asked by: Srinivas Kesineni

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

## LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.5683

TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.04.2022

## CONSUMER EXPENDITURE SURVEY

5683.  SHRI KESINENI SRINIVAS:

Will the Minister of STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  obsolete  items  such  as  VCRs  are  still  used  to  compute inflation  of  the  Consumer  Price  Index  (CPI)  basket  and  such  defunct items comprise about 10-12% of the CPI basket;
- (b) if so, the reasons for not having updated the same to reflect the changed consumption patterns;
- (c) the reasons for rejecting the Consumer Expenditure Survey of 201718 by the Government in 2019 along with the deadlines set to conduct the ones which were delayed in 2020 and 2021;
- (d) whether the CPI figures are not accurate as a result thereof; and
- (e) the measures taken to rectify this anomaly?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS  AND  PROGRAMME  IMPLEMENTATION,  MINISTER  OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS [RAO INDERJIT SINGH]

- (a), (b), (d) and (e): Consumer Price Indices (CPI) measure changes over time in general level of prices for a fixed basket of goods and services that households acquire for the purpose of consumption. The Price data

for CPI, compiled by NSO, is collected from 1114 urban and 1181 Rural Markets  from  all  states  and  UTs  every  month.  The specifications (including quality, variety, size, composition, brand, unit, quantity etc.) of  items  are  fixed  market  wise  on  the  basis  of  popular  consumption behaviour of local consumers and therefore not liable for generalization. VCR comes under the item head VCR/VCD/DVD player in the item basket for CPI series. For this the all India level weight is only 0.005794 out of total weight of 100. The present CPI series is calculated based on Base 2012=100 where the item basket and corresponding weights are derived from the Consumer Expenditure  Survey  data  of  68 th  Round  of  NSS  conducted  in  201112. Any partial or adhoc  change  in  basket  or weights is neither theoretically suggested nor practically feasible which is in line with the methodology internationally followed. (c):   This  Ministry  has  carried  out  an  All-India  survey  on  Household Consumer Expenditure during NSS 75th round (July 2017- June 2018). The Ministry has followed a rigorous procedure for vetting of data and reports which are produced through surveys. The results of this survey were  examined  and  it  was  observed  that  there  was  a  significant variation  in  the  levels  in  the  consumption  pattern  as  well  as  in  the direction of the change while comparing with other administrative data sources. The matter was also referred to a Committee of Experts which has recommended refining the survey methodology and improving the data quality aspects on a concurrent basis and it was decided that the results of CES 2017-2018 would not be released. As the period 2020 & 2021  was  not  considered  to  be  a  normal  one  due  to  the  COVID-19 pandemic, the Consumer Expenditure Survey was not taken up.

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