New Delhi, June 28 (KNN) The Commerce Ministry has formed 18-member Working Group under the chairmanship of Dr. Ramesh Chand, member of Niti Ayog for the revision of the current series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI).

The base year for the current series is 2011-12 and since then significant structural changes have taken place in the economy, therefore, it has become necessary to examine the coverage of commodities, weighting diagram and related issues pertaining to the existing series of index numbers of WPI, an official statement said.

The Office of Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade will be the nodal office for the Working Group and will process the report/recommendation of the Group for further necessary action.

The terms of reference of the working group are to review commodity basket of the current series of WPI and suggest additions/ deletions of commodities in the light of structural changes in the economy as witnessed since 2011-12.

The group will also review the existing system of price collection, examine the existing methodology of compilation of PPI and method of computing linking factor adopted so far.

Along with this, the member group will examine the existing methodology of the compilation of PPI approved by the Technical Advisory Committee on Series of Prices and Cost of Living and suggest further improvement in compilation and presentation and recommend a roadmap for the switchover from WPI to PPI. (KNN/Lavannya)