By IANS,
New Delhi : A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted that India is largely insulated from the global meltdown, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday reassured that the country’s banking sector continues to be stable.
“The banking and financial system is stable,” Chidambaram told the Lok Sabha during a discussion on supplementary demands for grants seeking parliamentary approval for additional resources of Rs.1.06 trillion.
The prime minister had reassured the Lok Sabha Monday that all Indian banks were “financially sound, well capitalised and well-regulated”.
The finance minister, however, admitted that inflation continued to be on the higher side, even as he ruled out any possibility of reduction in price of transport fuels.
The house approved the government’s proposal for releasing additional funds by a voice vote.
In the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said the government was monitoring the price situation on a regular basis.
“The containment of inflation remains high on our agenda,” Bansal said in reply to a query from C. Ramachandraiah of the Telugu Desam Party.
He added that there had been some moderation in inflation in recent weeks from 12.91 percent Aug 2 to 11.44 percent Oct 4. “It is expected that the declining trend would continue in the coming months,” added Bansal.