Covid-19 has not only affected the economy of the country but it has another effect that is indirectly related to the economy itself. This effect is to collect data on economic activities in the country. Due to the lockdown, the government agencies are not able to get the data on time for all the activities including tax collection and industrial production. This is the reason that the government has not been able to release GST data for the last two months. Not only this, when the data of inflation was released on Friday, it was also told that the authorities have not been able to collect data for all the shops, factories, and other sections.
In this case, only the figures for retail food inflation were released which is 9.28 percent in the month of May. The Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation released the data on industrial production on Friday, making it clear that this cannot be compared to the previous months as it is not yet complete.
Almost the entire industrial sector was in a standstill in April. With the closure of the plants, there has also been an impact of low attendance in government offices engaged in data gathering. From the second week of May, attention has been started to collect data but still, work has not started in every office smoothly. Reporting is very low where work has been started. The data that is currently being received from rural and remote areas cannot be trusted.
Government officials are assuming that the correct picture of tax collection, inflation, or industrial production during the months of April-May will come only in July or August 2020. Then the data for the last few months can be released afresh.
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