While the Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CES) in the past have had questions on freebies received by households, an attempt at imputation of their value has never been made, they said.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is now looking at how best to capture the imputed value of freebies and subsidies given by governments at various levels.
The move follows discussion between the finance ministry and the MoSPI on the need for such an exercise. The finance ministry, at a meeting with MoSPI officials last month, had flagged the need for calculation of the imputed value of freebies.
“The questions are already there in the survey, but we are deciding on how to calculate the value of imputation. The exercise will be done state-wise given that the freebies differ from state to state,” said one of the officials, who did not wish to be identified.
The data, an official said, will help in assessing the impact of freebies on household consumption and poverty lines.
In 2020, the Centre had introduced a free food programme soon after the nationwide lockdown was announced to contain the spread of Covid-19. The programme continued till December 2022. From January this year, the government has made food grains free under the National Food Security Act. In addition, state governments provide a host of freebies ranging from bicycles to laptops.
“We will bring out data in two sets, one with imputed value of freebies and one without. The one without will be comparable to older data,” said another person aware of the deliberations.
The MoSPI had decided on back-to-back surveys under the CES to ensure consistency.
The first survey will be completed in June and the second will start immediately thereafter, said officials.
The ministry had junked the 2017-18 survey citing data inconsistencies.
Consumption expenditure surveys also help determine the poverty line, besides helping build the consumer price index basket.
An International Monetary Fund working paper by Surjit Bhalla, Karan Bhasin and Arvind Virmani recently estimated the poverty line with and without government subsidies and freebies and found a considerable difference.