Centre forms working group for base revision of WPI

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has announced the constitution of a working group to revise the base year for the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) from the existing 2011-12 to 2022-23. The 18-member working group, chaired by Prof. Ramesh Chand, member, NITI Aayog, comprises representatives from various government departments, economic advisory bodies, and non-official experts.

Renowned economist Dr Surjit Bhalla, Dr Shamika Ravi, member, Economic Advisory Council to PM, Crisil’s chief economist Dr Dharmakirti Joshi are among the non-official members included in the group.

The working



group has been tasked with revising the commodity basket of WPI and Producer Price Index (PPI) in light of structural changes in the economy, to review the existing system of price collection and suggest changes for improvement. It will also decide on the computational methodology to be adopted by WPI or PPI, and will suggest further improvement in compilation and presentation, to recommend roadmap for switchover from WPI to PPI. The Working Group has been asked to submit its final report to the Office of the Economic Adviser within 18 months of the issue of this notification.