The government is planning to launch an annual survey of services along the lines of the annual survey of industries and develop a business register covering all units in the services sector.
These are part of the proposals to revamp the statistical system with the World Bank's assistance.
The World Bank had approved the concept paper of the proposals and a detailed plan would be submitted within two months, said officials of the department of statistics.
They said a number of studies would be conducted initially, but the survey would be conducted in the next phase of the project.
While the services sector, including modern business and personal services, has emerged as the most important component of the economy, there is no clear estimate of its contribution to the gross domestic product.
The statistical system of the country, which was primarily developed to estimate the growth of traditional sectors like agriculture and manufacturing, has been unable to estimate the contribution of the services sector.
The upgradation programme will also look at strengthening the statistical system in states.
In the first phase, the statistical set-up of the states would be studied to identify their strengths and weaknesses and the areas that needed attention, said officials.


