-Livemint.com Let’s not discredit the findings of statistical surveys that are conducted among real respondents The uncomfortable truth that emerged from the leaked report of the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) is that rural poverty increased substantially between 2011-12 and 2017-18 for the first time in five decades. That this happened during a period of claimed high growth should have led to more research on what went wrong. Instead, there have been attempts...

-The Indian Express The meeting with Sitharaman comes days after the GST Council informed states that the GST and compensation CESs collections in the last few months had become a “matter of concern”. Seven Opposition-ruled states and Union Territories — Punjab, Delhi, Puducherry, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh — made a forceful representation to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Wednesday demanding pending compensation under the Goods and ServiCES Tax (GST) regime,...

-The Hindu Letter to States flags falling collections The Centre has written to all the States voicing concern that due to the lower Goods and ServiCES Tax (GST) collections, the compensation CESs might not be enough to pay for losses arising out of the tax system. The communication comes at a time when several States, including Rajasthan, Kerala, Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal, have publicly urged the Centre to transfer pending compensation payments...

-Livemint.com * Leaked official data shows poverty is rising, but we won’t get a confirmation till at least 2023. That’s unfortunate * Neither has the government released the report of an expert panel, nor provided any evidence about the nature and extent of divergence with other administrative data On Friday, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (Mospi) announced that the data and reports of the 75th round of the National Statistical Office...

-The Indian Express Government data always come with limitations. Now, they have a political dimension A new data-related controversy has erupted after the government aborted the publication of the report of the household consumer expenditure survey (CES) conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) during 2017-18. This survey is one of the oldest series of surveys — undertaken by NSSO since the 1950s — and is the precursor to the...