GDP back series data: National Statistical Commission seeks public comment on panel report

New Delhi: The National Statistical Commission (NSC) has sought public comments on a panel report which showed that the economy grew at fastest pace under the Congress rule, amid a political row over the growth numbers. The report of the panel, constituted by the NSC, was made public last week. The government has maintained that the GDP Back Series Report 2011 was an unofficial document that has not been accepted by it. The Centre had also said the report was only at discussion stage and its acceptance will be based on wider consultations. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) posted the report on its website under the section that calls for comments on draft reports. “The NSC welcomes comments and suggestions on the reports by 30 September, 2018,” the commission said. Earlier the report was posted on the website’s publication section, which the opposition Congress cited as vindication of its economic policies. The NSC said the draft report has been placed in the public domain to facilitate wider public consultation and invited suggestions on that by 30 September, 2018. [caption id=“attachment_4317853” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] According to the draft report, the Indian economy recorded a 10.08 percent growth rate in 2006-07 under the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the highest since liberalisation of the economy in 1991. The highest ever growth rate since Independence was recorded at 10.2 percent in 1988-89 when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister, it said. The back series data on GDP report was prepared by the Committee on Real Sector Statistics. The report compares growth rates between old series (2004-05) and new series based on 2011-12 prices. “The GDP backseries data is finally out. It proves that like-for-like, the economy under both UPA terms (10 year avg: 8.1%) outperformed the Modi Govt (Avg 7.3%),” the Congress party had said in a tweet. “The UPA also delivered the ONLY instance of double-digit annual growth in modern Indian history,” it had said. Commenting on the report, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said,“UPA 1 and UPA 2 delivered the highest decadal growth of 8.13 percent at factor cost since Independence. It is also a matter of record that during this period 140 million people were lifted out of poverty”. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however, had said policies of the UPA to promote growth led to macro-economic instability. During the UPA regime, “fiscal discipline was compromised and the banking system was advised to go in for reckless lending notwithstanding the fact that it would eventually put the banks at a risk. And yet when the UPA moved out of power in 2014, the last three-year record, even in terms of growth, was less than modest,” Jaitley had said in a Facebook post.