Statistical body is free of centre’s sway, says Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: With the debate on revised high GDP data refusing to die, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said that Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) is a “professional organisation” and it functions at arm’s length from the government.

However, he said that high revised GDP numbers will not result in any complacency on the part of government. “I don’t think anybody in India ever questioned the professionalism of CSO. It is one organisation which functions completely at arm length from the government. They devise their own methodologies,” said Jaitley at the 3rd Growth Net Summit.

He said that, in fact, the Prime Minister and his ministry come to know about the data after its made public.

“CSO firmly maintains and I have no reason to distrust this — particularly when they updated the data of last year of the UPA government — that they expanded their methodology and they followed the procedure being done in almost all the developed countries in the world,” said Jaitley. In January, CSO revised India’s growth to 6.9 per cent 4.7 per cent.