Government keeping watch on inflation: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that the government is keeping an eye on price rise, which, she said, currently is “extraneous” due to prices of fuel and fertiliser.Responding to a discussion on Supplementary Demands for Grants in the Rajya Sabha, she said that wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation has slid to a 21-month low.Retail inflation also fell to a 10-month low of 5.88 per cent in November 2022, after remaining beyond the RBI’s upper tolerance level of 6 per cent.Sitharaman further said that due to various PLI schemes initiated by the Centre, private investment capex is rising in the country.She further said that the supplementary demand for grants is essentially for food security, fertiliser requirements and for providing support to the economy.Sitharaman further informed the upper House that the gross NPAs of banks fell to a six year low of 5.9 per cent in March 2022.She also said the government’s strategy to deal with Coronavirus pandemic helped in reviving economic growth, thus avoiding recessionary trends.Later, the Rajya Sabha returned the Supplementary Demands for Grants to Lok Sabha, thus completing the process of authorising the government to spend an additional Rs 3.25 lakh crore in the current fiscal.