Centre balancing inflation control with sustained economic growth: Minister

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) The government on Tuesday said it has undertaken a series of administrative measures, including fiscal and trade policy, to control inflation and mitigate its impact on the common citizen.

Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha that these coordinated actions are aimed at balancing inflation control with sustained economic growth.

These include the augmentation of buffer stocks for essential food items; strategic sales of procured grains in the open market; facilitation of imports and export curbs during periods of short supply; and implementation of stock limits to push more supplies of select commodities into the market, among others.

Other measures are retail sales of select food items under the Bharat brand at subsidised rates, and above all, distribution of food grains free of cost to around 81 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act, and increasing the disposable income of individuals by exempting annual incomes up to Rs 12 lakh (and Rs 2.75 lakh for salaried individuals with standard deduction) from income tax.

Giving more details, the minister further stated that complementing these efforts, the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee raised the repo rate by 250 basis points cumulatively (4 per cent to 6.5 per cent) between May 2022 and February 2023, and thereafter maintained it at 6.5 per cent through January 2025.

Consequently, the average year-on-year retail inflation, as measured by the CPI, fell from 5.4 per cent in 2023-24 to 4.6 per cent in 2024-25, the lowest in six years.

As per the recent data, retail inflation dropped further to 2.1 per cent in June 2025.

Consequent to a broad-based decline in inflation and to promote growth, RBI has brought in 100 basis point cut in policy (repo) rate since February 2025. These coordinated actions are aimed at balancing inflation control with sustained economic growth, said the minister.

The Central Bank follows a policy of flexible inflation targeting as its primary monetary policy framework, whereby RBI targets Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation (headline inflation) to be maintained at 4 per cent.

Over the past three quarters, the CPI inflation rate has been within the RBI's tolerance band of 4 per cent (WPI is not a specifically targeted inflation rate for RBI).

--IANS

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