It’s possible to address the divergence in data on Indian consumption

livemint.com:

The government recently released a fact sheet based on the highly awaited Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES). The 2022-23 survey’s results have been widely discussed in the media and highlight that the process of structural change expected with improvements in living standards has continued. One concern noted by many commentators is the divergence between aggregate household expenditure as measured by the HCES as against the national accounts (reported under Private Final Consumption Expenditure or PFCE).

Household consumer expenditure, as measured by the recent HCES, would be anywhere between 42-46% of PFCE. This divergence is slightly larger than what was noted in the HCES held in 2011-12, a continuation of a trend seen over the last few decades. I have indicated a range because the exact figure will depend on what assumptions we make relating to the share of urban population.

Here, let us briefly discuss some of the reasons behind the divergence and the possible solutions. As part of revision exercise in 2011, an expert committee under Professor A.K. Adhikari had analysed this divergence.

The panel had pointed out that the schedule for questions used in the 2011-12 Round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) was extremely long and used to take as much as 3-4 hours to complete. The view was that such a long interview would necessarily compromise the quality of responses on questions raised later in the interview and give poor quality estimates for the items described there. One of the recommendations of the group was that the NSS should consider breaking up the schedule into smaller schedules, which is what has been done in the latest exercise.