Question : Consumer Expenditure Survey

(a) the year-wise list of all the surveys conducted by the NSSO since 2014 till date;

(b) the year-wise list of all surveys including Consumer Expenditure Survey (2017-18) and the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)(2017-18) conducted by the NSSO during the above period and the reasons for non-acceptance of each report which/whose findings have not been accepted;

(c) the specific flaws in the methodology of PLFS (2017-18) and Consumer Expenditure Survey (2017-18) which acted as a contributing factor in the rejection of the report by the Government;

(d) whether any changes have been made in the methodologies of the surveys for rectifying/correcting the flaws noticed therein; and

(e) if so, the details thereof?

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

(a) to (c): The year-wise list of all the surveys conducted by the NSSO since 2014 and reports released till date is given in the Statement at Annex.

In case of Enterprise Survey on Services Sector (NSS 74th round (July, 2016 – June, 2017)), it was observed that there were issues in the survey methodology which would not have led to meaningful results and thus only a technical report was brought out. In case of Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, as part of NSS 75th round (July 2017-June 2018), the results 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 and its inability to effectively capture the levels of subsidy of goods and services consumed. Thus the survey results could not have been used for the base revision for the macro-economic indicators like Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Index of Industrial Production (IIP), Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and would have led to inaccuracies in the estimates and thus, the report was not released.

In case of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2017-18, it was observed that the sampling design had changed and led to incomparability with earlier surveys on Employment and Unemployment and this was included in the report released which is also available in the public domain.

(d) & (e): The Government has constituted several Committees / Standing Committee(s) comprising eminent experts / academicians and representatives from major user Ministries / Departments to review the system and methodology relating to the NSS surveys on continuing basis and recommend, inter-alia, the improvements in survey methodology with adequate data quality checks at the data capturing stage.

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