Indian govt mulling changing base year from 2011-12 to 2022-23 for calculating GDP

Regularly updating the base year is essential to ensure that indices accurately reflect changes in the economy’s structure, such as shift in consumption pattern, sector weight and the incorporation of new sectors

India is mulling shifting the base year for calculating GDP to 2022-23. The two years were mired in pandemic. File image

The government is considering changing the base year for computation of the GDP to 2022-23 in February 2026 to reflect an accurate picture of the economy, a top government official said.

This will be the first revision in over a decade. It was last done in 2011-12.

Addressing an event here, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) Secretary Saurabh Garg further said the ministry will come up with monthly estimates of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) from January next year.

“…next base year (GDP) will be 2022-23…will be implemented from February 2026,” Garg said.

The 26-member Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics (ACNAS), which was constituted under the Chairmanship of Biswanath Goldar, is expected to complete the exercise by early 2026.

Regularly updating the base year is essential to ensure that indices accurately reflect changes in the economy’s structure, such as shift in consumption pattern, sector weight and the incorporation of new sectors.

Garg said that MoSPI is in process of starting procedure of economic census.

He also pitched for promoting data driven decision making.

Garg also favoured better data governance by way of uniform guidelines.

He lamented that some of the affluent neighbourhood are refusing to talk to ministry’s surveyors.