On-line costs in 12 cities to be monitored for brand spanking new CPI sequence, ETCFO
New Delhi: The federal government has recognized 12 cities with a inhabitants of greater than 2.5 million every to watch e-commerce worth traits as a part of efforts to precisely seize altering consumption patterns within the new Shopper Worth Index (CPI) sequence, which is scheduled for launch in 2026, mentioned individuals conscious of the event.
In every of those cities, costs of a specific merchandise charged by the main vendor in that metropolis can be famous. For example, rice costs in Lucknow could possibly be tracked by way of BigBasket, whereas in Bengaluru it is likely to be Amazon, mentioned an official, who didn’t want to be recognized.
The up to date CPI sequence will develop protection to 2,900 markets, up from the present 1,181 rural and 1,114 city markets, the individuals instructed ET.
The bottom 12 months for the worth sequence will shift to 2024 from 2012, whereas the weights of things within the index can be derived from the Family Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23.
The brand new sequence will keep away from redistribution of weights. “There can be no redistribution of weights within the new sequence,” the official mentioned.
To include altering consumption patterns within the CPI, weights are sometimes redistributed. Nevertheless, this will result in overestimation as reallocating weight to a different commodity might inaccurately characterize its precise share within the consumption basket.
“It could possibly be that the composition and weights have to be pretty consultant and in accordance with HCES 2011-12, which is why they’ve selected exclusion of redistribution of weights,” mentioned Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Financial institution of Baroda.
Gaura Sengupta, chief economist at IDFC First Financial institution, mentioned that is accomplished to keep away from volatility within the index.
The statistics and programme implementation ministry goals to boost market protection throughout sectors. The brand new sequence will even observe costs of on-line streaming companies (OTT platforms), in addition to rail and air fares.
The ministry had written to e-commerce and fast commerce corporations reminiscent of Amazon, BigBasket, Zepto, Flipkart and Zomato practically two years in the past, searching for entry to pricing knowledge. Nevertheless, none of them agreed to share the data owing to considerations round privateness and enterprise technique confidentiality.
The ministry is exploring the usage of scanner knowledge, which has been integrated by many European international locations. Efforts are underway to immediately procure scanner knowledge from retail organisations, the official mentioned.
Internet scraping can also be being explored, it poses some challenges, based on the official.
The ministry can also be consulting worldwide organisations, together with the World Financial institution and the Worldwide Financial Fund, ET had reported earlier.
