Import data difference rises to $11.7 bn

The commerce ministry has admitted that the discrepancy in import data compiled by the Reserve Bank of India and the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics has peaked during April-September in 2006-07 to $11.76 billion.

This is a 14 per cent difference between the RBI figure of $95.69 billion and the directorate's $83.93 billion.

The difference in import data compiled by these agencies in 2005-06 was $7.83 billion and $7.39 billion, respectively. In percentage terms, the difference was 5.24 per cent and 6.6 per cent for the two years.

While both agencies record the same transactions, the scope, the time period, definition, method and coverage of items of trade differ considerably, resulting in such divergence.

While the RBI relies on foreign exchange release/receipt returns, the directorate figures are based on Customs data. The government feels the Customs data could be incomplete in the short term because it is based on bills of entries.

The RBI data on exports and imports are revised every quarter up to 24 months while the directorate finalises its trade data after eight months.

"As such, for a particular time period at any specific date, given the leads and lags in reporting, the two sets of data would never match," the annual survey notes.