Parliament Question: Revision of CPI methodology

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No.3517 TO BE ANSWERED ON 23.03.2026 REVISION OF CPI METHODOLOGY

3517. SHRI MALLIKARJUN KHARGE:

Will the Minister of STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION be pleased to

state:

(a) whether it is a fact that Government proposes to use price data directly from e-commerce platforms for revamping the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and related inflation measures;

(b) if so, the details thereof, including the scope of coverage, cities involved, data-collection timeline and the anticipated changes in weightages for consumption basket;

(c) whether Government plans to discontinue or revise the base years of the existing CPI for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL) and CPI for Rural Labourers (CPI-RL);

(d) if so, the details thereof, including the proposed base year and methodology: and

(e) if not, the reasons therefor? 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 CULTURE (RAO INDERJIT SINGH)

(a): The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has strengthened the measurement framework of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) through a comprehensive base revision from 2012=100 to 2024=100, using the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023–24 to update the CPI item basket and weights. The key enhancements in base revision exercise include expansion in coverage, methodological refinements, adoption of international classification system and inclusion of administrative and e-commerce data in CPI to make CPI more robust and representative. Keeping in view the adequate representativeness and feasibility of data collection, the sample markets in both rural and urban areas are increased from 2295 to 2860 in CPI 2024 series. As capturing the price trends on the e-commerce platforms has become important because of its growing use by the Indian households, 12 online markets are also added across 12 biggest towns of the country, having more than 25 lakh population as per census 2011 to capture price variations of the items on the e-commerce/online platforms

(b): The prices of items are collected through online/e- commerce platforms on weekly basis. All items of CPI baskets are mapped with the corresponding most popular e-commerce platform forprice collection by the respective regional offices of Field Operations Division (FOD) of MoSPI.

Keeping in view the volatility of prices on e-commerce platforms, prices are collected in all four weeks on identified days and time slot. A monthly average price using these weekly transaction price observations are used in CPI compilation.

(c) to (e): The Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural Labourers and Rural Labourers (CPI-AL & RL) is released by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour & Employment. The current series with base year 2019=100 was released in June 2025. It incorporates several methodological improvements to enhance robustness and coverage. The series covers 34 States/U'T's with price collection from 787 sample villages and an item basket of around 150-200 items. It uses revised weighting diagrams reflecting updated consumption patterns, adopts the Geometric Mean (GM) to moderate price volatility and follows the Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP)-2018 classification.

Further, the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment, has constituted an Expert Group under the chairmanship of Shri A.K. Sadhu (Former DG (NSS), MOSPI) on 02.12.2024 to review the base year revision of CPI-AL/RI, to a more recent year.

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