Govt allowed to rebase national accounts to 2015-16

ISLAMABAD: After the reconstitution of Governing Council (GC) of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the government on Tuesday has secured approval for rebasing national accounts for calculation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the base year 2005-6 to 2015-16.

It resulted in revising the upward size of GDP up to Rs55.5 trillion for the last fiscal year 2020-21 from Rs48 trillion, whereas in dollar terms it jacked up from $298 billion to $347 billion in 2020-21. Per capita income increased to Rs266,614, up from the earlier figure of Rs246,414 for 2020-21, while in dollar terms it jumped to $1,666 from earlier projections of $1,543 during the fiscal year.

However, the size of the economy under the PTI-led regime was still lower than PML (N) led regime when it stood at $357 billion in 2017-18.

As PBS was handed over to Ministry of Planning so its reconstituted Governing Council was now chaired by Federal Minister of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives (PD&SI) Asad Umar.

The GC of PBS was also communicated that the bureau was going to procure 120,000 computer tablets and summary for getting first batch will be tabled before the Cabinet soon under compliance of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA). The PBS will hold sample census in May 2022 with selection of 2 to 3 percent area from all four provinces of the country.

According to the official announcement, the 19th meeting of the GC of PBS was held on Tuesday under the chair of planning minister on Tuesday.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Dr Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan, Secretary PD&SI Abdul Aziz Uqaili, Chief Statistician, PBS Dr Naeem Uz Zafar, members and other relevant stakeholders.

Chief Statistician PBS, Dr Naeem Uz Zafar, apprised the forum about the agenda items to be discussed as well as implementation status of decision made in 18th meeting of the GC. Secretary GC also shed light on the agenda item “Change of Base of National Accounts (CBNA) from (2005-06) to (2015-16)”.

After the discussion and deliberation, Rebasing of National Accounts from (2005-06) to (2015-16) was approved by the GC. It was also decided that work on next rebasing may be initiated after Population Census-2022 and FY2023 may be taken as base year for next rebasing of National Accounts.

During the meeting, GC briefed the meeting on the agenda item “Change of base of Trade Indices from (1990-9) to (2017-18)”. The forum was informed about recommendations of the technical committee of PBS regarding change of base of Trade Indices. It was also informed that the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) had already commended the initiative and endorsed the proposed methodology of rebasing of Trade Statistics. The GC of PBS unanimously approved the change of base of Trade Indices from (1990-91) to (2017-18).

Secretary, GC informed the forum that conduct of various censuses and surveys have been halted due to conduct of the 7th Population and Housing Census. It was decided by the GC to resume various census and surveys after the completion of the 7th Population & Housing Census- 2022.

The GC was also briefed about the results of Population & Housing Census 2017 as well as various activities of the 7th Population and Housing Census, the first ever “Digital Census” of Pakistan.

Dr Muhmamad Iqbal and Dr Syed Muhammad Arif, members of GC, appreciated the initiative of PBS under which various sensitisation workshops on Population and Housing Census conducted in all the provinces for Census Awareness. These workshops are important for involvement of stakeholders especially government organisations, researchers and data users from planning stage.