Rebasing of national accounts: Dar directs PBS to complete eight surveys at the earliest

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to complete the eight surveys at the earliest for ensuring rebasing of national accounts in the next year. On Friday, Finance Minister chaired a meeting to review the working of PBS and Chief Statistics PBS Asif Bajwa informed him on the progress made with respect to "Rebasing of National Accounts" project.
Bajwa informed the Minister that PBS has completed four surveys for rebasing of national accounts including Construction Survey, Small & Household Manufacturing Industries Survey, Rent Survey, Household Integrated Income and Consumption Survey. He added Agriculture Survey, Industrial Survey, Wholesale and Retail Trade Survey, Study on Road Transport and Electricity Establishment Survey would be completed in the next year.
The Chief Statistician gave a detailed presentation to the Finance Minister on the "Urban Rural Areas Frame Updation" project as well and stated that the PBS surveyors have done most of the work of compilation of the digital map of the urban areas of Pakistan. The remaining work will be completed within 6-8 weeks time. The work has been carried out in coordination with the provincial governments.
Dar directed that the survey of rural areas may also be initiated and completed so that updated data is available to the decision makers for informed decisions. The Chief Statistician further informed the Minister that PBS has started a programme for the in-house training and skill improvement of its staff for better performance. Along with improving the skills, new technologies and software updates are also being introduced to ensure better performance of the Institution. Finance Minister wants the PBS to complete the remaining work on the collection of data and necessary information. The meeting was attended by the senior officials of Ministry of Finance and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.