Pranab Mukherjee Sees 9% Growth In 2011-12.

India should be able to achieve a 9% growth in the next fiscal, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

If the investment level is around 35-36%, it will be possible to have 9% growth, he said in his reply to the discussion on the budget. "I am projecting that it will be 9% plus or minus 0.25."

The upper house of parliament returned the Finance Bill to the Lok Sabha after the FM's reply, marking the completion of the three-stage budgetary exercise for 2011-12.

In his reply to the budget in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the finance minister had rolled back the contentious service tax on top-end hospitals, halved the tax on import of completely knocked-down kits by automobile companies and provided some relief to the garments industry.

Mukherjee told the Rajya Sabha that the government was making efforts to bring down inflation to a reasonable level. Food inflation rose again after three weeks of decline, government data released on Thursday showed. The index for food articles rose 10.05% for the week ended March 12 from a year ago, higher than a 9.42% rise in the previous week. Replying to a pointed query on inflation, Mukherjee said, "It will be extremely difficult to indicate (the level) as seen from the behaviour of last six months..."

He said the political crisis in the Middle East would have implications for the Indian economy because two-thirds of country's oil imports were from that region. "If you look at our oil requirement...out of 100 million tonnes imported last year, 67 million tonnes, or two-thirds, came from the Middle East alone," he said.

Crude prices have risen again to over $115 a barrel after dropping briefly because of the devastating tsunami in Japan.

The finance minister, however, exuded confidence that the government would be able to manage the external situation.

Mukherjee rejected a demand for a specific duty on the petroleum sector to avoid cascading effects of price rise on consumers. He said bulk of the taxes on petroleum products were going to states and it would not be prudent to disturb the current system.

He said the Centre was in discussions with chief ministers of mineral-producing states on their demand for increasing royalty and the issue will be addressed by a proposed law.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com