	u s february  to be reported on new basis the february monthly merchandise  figures to be reported tuesday by the commerce department will be on a new basis reflecting more recent data so avoiding future revisions of the monthly figure commerce officials said the overall january deficit of billion dlrs will be revised but the february figure will be a final one officials said previously the initial monthly figure has had to be revised in subsequent months because of the time lag between the report and the compiling of final estimates on imports and exports the reporting of the february  data was delayed several weeks to permit gathering latest figures on imports and exports to give a clearer picture of the monthly  balance reuter 
