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The Statistics Ministry on Thursday proposed including rural sector in preparing housing index for new Consumer Price Index (CPI) series. It also proposed changes in frequency of collection of rent data. The new CPI series, with 2024 as the base year, will replace the current 2012-based series and is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2026. The item basket and weights for the revised CPI will be derived from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24. Housing index is one of the key component of CPI with as it has 21.67 per cent expenditure share for urban areas and 10.07 per cent expenditure share at All India level in the existing CPI series. However, the existing series has only urban sector, but now it will be expanded. “The new series will compile the Housing Index for both rural and urban sectors. This marks a departure from the current series, which includes only the urban sector, due to the absence of imputed rent data for rural areas in the HCES 2011-12,” a discussion paper issued by Statistics Ministry said. It will be possible as the HCES 2023-24 has also captured house rent data for rural areas, including imputed rent for owner-occupied dwellings. In terms of sampling, it has been said that rent data will be collected from 12 dwellings per urban market, subject to the availability of rented units. In selected villages, data will be collected from 6 dwellings, based on availability. “To eliminate distortions introduced sometimes due to concessional or employer provided dwellings, in the proposed CPI series, government accommodations and other employer-provided dwellings will be excluded from the compilation of the Housing Index, as these do not reflect transactions in the actual rental market,” the Ministry said. There is no change in classification and weightage. While the category 1 means dwellings with 1 living room, category 2, 3 and 4 will be assigned to dwelling with 2, 3 and 4 (or more) living rooms, respectively. The weights assigned to each dwelling category will be based on the proportions obtained from the Census 2011 data, the paper said. “The proposed changes in the methodology are being done with the objective of making housing index more robust and representative,” the Ministry mentioned while adding that comments and suggestions can be sent by November 20. Earlier, in an interview to businessline, Minister of State (independent Charge in the Statistics and Program Implementation Rao Inderjit Singh had said that there are around 407 items on which information on quantity and/or value of consumption by households have been collected through field-survey in HCES 2023-24 by the NSO. The results of the survey in the form of a report and the micro data of the survey have already been published. Weighing diagram of the CPI for the new base is being derived using the HCES data. The weighing diagram has not been finalized yet. The number of items is expected to increase in CPI Basket in comparison to the existing series. Published on October 30, 2025
