Survey of accounts of select IT firms planned

Government hopes survey data will help boost the GSDP

In an effort to augment its case for more funds from the Centre, the Karnataka government has decided to commission an extensive survey of the annual accounts of select units in the information technology sector in the State.

It hopes that data from the survey will help boost the gross State domestic product (GSDP) and, in turn, that can be used to demand greater funds from the Centre.

Director of Economics and Statistics K. Lakshmipathy told

The Hindu that hitherto the directorate was depending on the gross value added (GVA) arrived at after using employment in the IT sector — provided by the Software Technology Park of India — as an indicator for calculating the GSDP, which, he argued, was not a good indicator for the State. He said the proposed survey would be accepted and it would commence within the month.

He said the State government was not getting its due allocation even though the IT exports from Karnataka had crossed Rs. 1.65 lakh crore. To overcome this lacuna, Mr. Lakshmipathy said that when the estimate for the IT sector from the State was properly calculated, Karnataka would get a higher GSDP, say some 16 per cent. In the present system, the GVA is not tallying, he said, and added that any oral explanation about the higher GSDP would not hold water. Hence, this survey.

Mr. Lakshmipathy said his department would have a separate sample survey organisation on the lines of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). Then, the State government could have an independent survey of goods and services for primary, secondary and tertiary sectors such as agriculture and agri-related areas, manufacturing and industry, transport and communication, and information technology.

On Friday, Mr. Lakshmipathy participated in a State-level workshop for field investigators of a yearlong national sample survey on domestic tourism, organised by the NSSO and the Directorate of Economics and Statistics. NSSO deputy directors Unnikrishnan and B. Ahmed Ayub said the survey was a challenging task and advised the field investigators to be friendly with people in getting the information they required.