New Delhi: Finance secretary, D C Gupta, yesterday
said that the government was in favour of a `benign'' interest
rate regime. "Any hike in rates will hit growth,
and that we will not like to have,'''' Gupta said. However,
he added that it was primarily the task of the Reserve
Bank of India to decide on the interest rate regime.
On
GDP growth, Gupta said the economy should grow by 6 to
7 per cent this fiscal, given the trend of the first quarter
GDP growth of 7.4 per cent.
Inflation
trends would depend largely on external factors such as
rising crude prices. "Inflation has to be watched.
It depends on external factors like hike in oil prices.''''
Gupta
added that the government does not plan any further duty
cuts to check inflation.
He
refused to indicate whether the government proposes to
introduce specific duty on petroleum products instead
of ad valorem rates currently.
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