25 April 2004	Sunday	04 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, April 24: The government has decided to announce the upcoming budget, using a new basis of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with 1999-2000 as the base year instead of 1990-91 , the Secretary, Statistics Division, Dr Agha Ghazanfar Ali told Dawn here on Saturday.

Giving the rationale for the decision, he said in the view of the Finance Ministry, which controls the Statistics Division, the period following 1990-91 had seen the emergence of new factors which are not captured in the present economic index.

In this connection, 43 new items have been identified that are not taken into account while measuring the performance of economy. These would be included in the economic index in order to make the estimates about the economic growth rate more realistic.

He was asked about the progress of the economic survey which was undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Statistics recently in time for the finance minister's budget speech. The secretary said the survey would be completed and its results submitted to the finance ministry by the end of May.

Asked about the scheme to unify the Federal Bureau of Statistics, Population Census Commission and Agricultural Census Commission in a single organization, he said work was apace on the formulation of a strategy that would underlie the structure of the proposed new body.

The strategy would focus on developing the statistical system geared to provide to the government latest data on three subjects namely poverty alleviation, employment and investment.

The on-going economic survey on poverty alleviation is part of the process. As regards employment, the work on the processing of Labour Force Survey data had been accelerated and would be completed by October, he stated.

His attention was drawn to the Economic Census which was to be completed in December 2003. Dr Ghazanfar said the results of the data would be processed fully by the end of 2004.

The census, he added, had listed 3.2 million large scale manufacturing units. This data would provide a clear picture about the level of investment in Pakistan. On the basis of this census, effort would be made to set up a single statistical organization which would address all the three concerns of the government.

A large-scale establishment is defined as an enterprise employing more than 10 persons. It was an inappropriate definition not fully cognizant of the true nature of an enterprise, he remarked.

Two important departments of the Statistics Division, that is,the Federal Bureau of Statistics and Agricultural Census Commission have been without their heads for more than a year. As a result, the Federal Bureau of Statistics was already behind time in completing numerous surveys.

The secretary said a decision to fill these slots would be based on the final structure of the new organization.