Informist, Friday, Mar. 21, 2025

NEW DELHI – The eighth Economic Census, which provides comprehensive database of all establishments in the country, has been pushed to 2026 after the statistics ministry failed to get it approved from the finance ministry's Department of Expenditure. The last round of the Economic Census was also scrapped due to quality concerns, meaning that the gap between two consecutive Economic Census will grow to more than 12 years--the sixth Economic Census was conducted in 2013.

"MoSPI (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation) had submitted a proposal to the Department of Expenditure for conduct of 8th Economic Census in 2025-26 (Apr-Mar)," the ministry told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. "The Department of Expenditure has informed that considering the fiscal constraints as well as the fact that FY26 is the last year of the present Finance Commission Cycle and the fiscal resources available to the Government over the next Finance Commission Cycle would be known in February 2026, MoSPI may present the proposal for consideration of EFC (Expenditure Finance Committee) after that date."

The seventh Economic Census was not finalised due to quality concerns. The statistics ministry utilised INR 6.91 billion of the total outlay of INR 9.13 billion for the seventh Economic Census. "The Committee feel that even after spending such a huge sum the purpose of the whole exercise was defeated. This is a sad state of affairs," the standing committee said in a report.

The standing committee urged the statistics ministry to "salvage some useful data" collected during the fieldwork for the last Economic Census. The ministry should at least come out with "some interim data for this period to partly justify the expenditure incurred on the survey", the committee said in the report. "The Committee further desire that the Ministry should begin all the preparatory work for the conduct of the field work of 8th Economic Census in a smooth, reliable and time bound manner."

The ministry has to undertake the Economic Census every three years to provide detailed and comprehensive database of all establishments in the country, whether in public or private sector, organised or unorganised sector.

The ministry said that engaging a third party for conduct of field work of seventh Economic Census did not work out as expected. In order to avoid a repeat for the next round, the ministry has undertaken certain steps.

States and Union Territories will have complete ownership in engagement of enumerators for data collection and deployment of supervisors for supervision, the ministry said. Timeline for field work has been increased from three months in last round to nine months in the eight Economic Census, for sufficient time for field work. "This will also enable the States/UTs to accommodate time consumed in other official obligations like Elections," ministry said. End

Reported by Shubham Rana

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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