The All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, normally conducted every five years by the National Statistical Office (NSO), is set to resume this year after a lengthy hiatus.
India has had no official estimates of household expenditure per capita since 2011/12, which is used to arrive at estimates of poverty levels in different parts of the country and to check economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP). The government had thrown out the results of the last poll, conducted in 2017-18, citing “data quality” issues.
“It has been decided to conduct the survey from July and we have started planning drills to train the counters who will conduct the 2022-23 survey on site,” said an official aware of the development Peppystores. Typically, the survey is conducted between July and June, and this year’s exercise is expected to be completed by June 2023.
Estimates of monthly household consumer expenditure per capita (MPCE) and the distribution of households and individuals across different MPCE classes based on the survey may not be available until about a year after the fieldwork is completed. The results include separate datasets for rural and urban parts, as well as common spending patterns for each state and union territory, and for different socioeconomic groups.
From mid-May, field counters were asked to participate in training programs to ensure interviews with households in urban and rural India are conducted sensitively and the desired data are collected effectively. The schedule lists the items for which information is sought.
In November 2019, the Department of Statistics and Program Implementation had dismissed reports that the results of the 2017–18 survey were being withheld due to negative results reflecting a fall in consumer spending.
The ministry had also said it was studying the feasibility of conducting the next survey in 2020-2021 and 2021-22 after “all data quality improvements have been incorporated into the survey process” as recommended by an expert panel that resolved the “inconsistencies” in the 2017– 18 results.
The survey has not been able to launch for the past two years due to the pandemic, the official said.
“…There was a significant increase in divergence not only in terms of the level of consumption pattern but also in the direction of change compared to other administrative data sources such as actual production of goods and services,” the ministry had noted in a previous survey.
There are also concerns about the “ability/sensitivity of the survey instrument to capture household welfare consumption, particularly in the health and education sectors,” it said.
New one-off surveys of consumer spending, employment and unemployment were commissioned in 2011-12 after the normally scheduled surveys conducted in 2009-10 coincided with a global slowdown following the 2008 global financial crisis and a drought year in India.
Although the new surveys at the time were necessitated by the unusual circumstances, the 2009-10 survey data was made publicly available, unlike the 2017-18 results.
