Terming the sharp revision in the industrial production data as "totally baffling", Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said he has asked the authorities concerned to look into the issue.
"I can understand if there is error in calculating 0.1 per cent of 0.2 per cent, but from 6.8 per cent to 1.1 per cent, it is totally baffling," Mukherjee told reporters, commenting on the sharp revision of the IIP growth rate for January from 6.8 per cent to 1.1 per cent.
He further said: "We shall have to ensure that government data, their integrity should not be challenged...I have asked concerned authorities to look into it that why it has taken place and they should be much more careful in the future".
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) on Thursday revised the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for January from 6.8 per cent to 1.14 per cent because of wrong calculation of sugar production during the month.
Chief Statistician T C A Anant had attributed the sharp downward revision in IIP data to incorrect reporting on sugar production by the Directorate of Sugar in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
According to Anant, "Subsequent to the release (of IIP data for January 2012), it has been detected ... that the sugar production was wrongly taken as 134.08 lakh tonnes in place of actual figure of 58.09 lakh tonnes".
He had said that due to this change and minor update of data received from other source agencies, the IIP for January 2012 has been revised from 187.9 to 177.9.
Also, Anant said, the cumulative index for the period April-January (2011-12) was revised from 4 per cent to 3.4 per cent.
