Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday told Parliament that the government is keeping an eye on the fuel prices while having taken several steps to control inflation, LiveMint reported.
In a written reply to Rajya Sabha Sitharaman quoted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as saying, “Excise duties, cess, and taxes imposed by the Centre and states need to be adjusted in a coordinated manner to contain input cost pressures emanating from petrol and diesel prices.”
“The price situation is constantly monitored by the government and appropriate measures are taken to maintain price stability,” Sitharaman said in the letter.
As reported by LiveMint, the steps taken by the government include supply improvement measures such as lowering of import duties on edible oils, liberalizing import policy for pulses and edible oils, signing deals for import of pulses with supplier countries, imposing stock limits for pulses and utilization of pulses stocks for cooling down prices.
In June RBI pointed out that the rising price of international commodity prices, especially of crude poses a risk to the inflation outlook. The central bank had also pointed that the impact of the second wave of COVID-19 requires urgent policy interventions, active monitoring, and timely measures to prevent the emergence of supply chain bottlenecks, LiveMint reported.
