New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, while replying to the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, said that the Gulf crisis has impacted prices and availability of oil and hinted that imports will become difficult if crude prices rise to $150-200 per barrel.
He also informed the House that volatility in oil prices will have impact on inflation.
The Finance Minister has also informed the House that a sum of Rs 49,000 crore has been sacrificed by cutting duties on petro products and the Government has refrained from raising diesel prices since June 2011.
Indicating that the UPA does not have clear and absolute mandate, Mukherjee said that the ultimate objective is to get things done with consensus.
Informing the House that the service tax negative list exempts large number of services, Mukherjee said that the taxes were raised as a step towards Goods and Service Tax.
"Broad consensus on taxes will have to be aligned for GST. We must see light at end of tunnel on GST. We cannot go on compensating states endlessly," said Mukherjee.
The Finance Minister also appealed to Yashwant Sinha panel to give the GST Bill Report in monsoon session of Parliament.
Indicating that uncertainty prevails internally and externally, Mukherjee said, "We shall have to work out a domestic demand driven strategy. Demand can be created by investing in infrastructure and rural sectors."
Saying that implementing food security is a daunting task, the Finance Minister informed the House that rice production has crossed 100 MT for the first time. Praising Sharad Pawar for the bumper rice harvest, Mukherjee said there are needs to make investments in agriculture, infrastructure and rural India to achieve growth.
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