"Oil marketing companies are to take decision depending on cost of their imports. It is market related as per as oil market companies are concerned on petrol," Mukherjee told reporters.
Defending the Centre's decision to deploy paramilitary forces in Lalgarh, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said the Centre could not sit idle when lives of people were in danger and the state government failed to reopen Lalgarh police station.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram's much-awaited statement before the media on the 11-page note of finance ministry on the 2G scam that indicts Chidambaram is a loss of face for Mukherjee, but it may prove a deceptive victory for Chidambaram at a later stage.
Recalling the steps taken by the government to deal with the issue, Mukherjee said, "Our efforts to tackle this menace have been increasing (and) we are committed to the goal of achieving zero tolerance against corruption."
India on Friday said Bhutan and its security is "intricately interlinked" and it is important for the two neighbours to be sensitive to each other's concerns, as President Pranab Mukherjee held wide-ranging talks with the Bhutanese leadership.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday announced a stimulus package for the economy, the third this financial year, cutting excise duty and service tax two percentage points each, effective midnight, and extending previous excise cuts beyond March 31, 2009.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has rejected a proposal by Communications Minister A Raja for refund of the Rs 29,598 crore paid by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited for third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday held a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of a meeting of CEOs from India and the US.
The praise for peasants, most of whom are subsistence farmers, comes ahead of general elections due in a few months. The minister presented statistics to hard-sell the government's initiatives to prop up the agriculture sector and improve the conditions of roughly about 60 per cent of the country's population depending upon it.
The government has pegged fiscal deficit at 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product for the next financial year, against the revised figure of 6 per cent in the current financial year. The fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal was 2.5 per cent. However, fiscal measures initiated in the wake of the global economic downturn and reduction in revenue collection have impacted resource mobilisation resulting in widening of deficit.
'Peace time was the best time for defence preparedness,' the defence minister said.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is cutting short his visit to Washington and rushing to New York to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, amid a storm back home over his ministry's note to the prime ministers on the 2G scam.
A day after the Reserve Bank raised its key interest rates to check inflation, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday indicated it may not be the last increase for now.
Government on Friday ruled out replacing its Lokpal Bill with another, saying it will be better to have amendments to the one already introduced.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee lost his temper in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday after being repeatedly interrupted by Communist Party of India - Marxist member Brinda Karat during discussions on the price rise issue. "I am not going to accept this. This is indiscipline. It is not permitted here," an incensed Mukherjee retorted at Karat's intervention. As she objected to his remarks, Mukherjee shot back, "Please do not show your temper here, show your temper somewhere else."
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led opposition walked out of the Lok Sabha on Thursday afternoon, specifically protesting on the issue of Balochistan and the delinking of terror from the composite dialogue process.
Africa is growing. India wants to play a part in its growth. It sees Libya as the gateway.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday spurned Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's request for inputs on the proposed Lokpal Bill, arguing it would not be proper for a political party to submit its views to a drafting committee comprising civil society members as it would upset constitutional propriety.
The tsunami of recession that originated in the Wall Street and spread to Europe did not affect India because our banks are conservative, said Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi while addressing a seminar at the 10th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas in Jaipur on Sunday.
He, however, also felt that inflation has peaked and would begin falling and be lower than the 5.5 per cent projected by RBI for this fiscal.
Pakistan has not responded officially on India's dossier on the terror attacks in Mumbai, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in New Delhi on Tuesday.National Security Adviser M K Narayanan had told a TV channel on Sunday that Pakistan had sent two sets of questions about the dossier and Indian officials have already replied to one set of questions.
Voicing scepticism over Pakistan acting decisively against terrorists operating from its soil, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said such elements have been let off in the past after some initial action."We can make available whatever evidences we have. In this case, we are also investigating, we have not come to any conclusion. Therefore at this juncture, perhaps, it would be premature to share the evidences," Mukherjee said during a TV interview.
The two also met corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid, who asked them to keep his ministry in the loop.
For the past one-and-a-half months, railway minister Mamata Banerjee has stopped her informal interactions with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee after a sharp exchange on telephone over a municipal election issue.
India will not tolerate obstruction in fencing along LoC, says defence minister
During his whirlwind election tour in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, also the United Progressive Alliance's chief interlocutor, tells Saubhadra Chatterji the government has its own way of moving against corruption:
Mukherjee said about Rs 2.42 lakh crore (Rs 2.42 trillion) in taxes is locked up in litigation before the CIT appeal, ITAT and high courts.
India and China have established a Working Group to prepare a framework for the settlement of their vexed boundary issue, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced at Harbin in China on Thursday. The 11th round of talks between the Special Representatives of India and China was successful and they have decided to set up a Working Group to prepare a framework for the resolution of the boundary issue, said Mukherjee.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said that the United Progressive Alliance government was ready to bring in and get the Lokpal Bill passed in the next session of Parliament if the Opposition cooperated with it.
He rejected Advani's demand for a Parliament resolution declaring Arunachal Pradesh as an inalienable part of India.
He pointed out that wages under the NREGA have been increased from Rs 61 to Rs 100 which would lead to earnings of Rs 10,000 annually 'irrespective of qualification'. Mukherjee, who is the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief urged party workers to pinpoint failures in implementation of the scheme at the block and panchayat levels.
Budget ideas from industry are irresponsible
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh continues to be in the hot soup. The crisis regarding the Indo-Pakistan joint statement simply refuses to blow over with the party now giving charge to Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A K Antony to diffuse the situation, retrieve the issue with the least damage to the government.
Maharashtra's beleaguered Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Saturday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi after his name cropped up in a controversy surrounding the Adarsh housing society in Mumbai. Earlier, Sonia met Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, political secretary to the Congress president Ahmed Patel, All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi and Union minister Prithviraj Chavan over the issue.
The finance minister also provided some relief to readymade garment manufacturers by raising the abatement available for levy of taxes on retail price of some branded garments and textile made-ups.
As lawyers distance themselves from defending Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab in court, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that the terrorist caught during the Mumbai attacks will get a fair trial."Of course, in India everybody will get a fair trial," Mukherjee told PTI when asked whether Kasab should be given a fair trial."Every person in India who is accused or prosecuted is entitled to have a fair trial," he said.
The government on Friday shot down a suggestion in the Lok Sabha for setting up a committee under the member of Parliament in respective constituencies for monitoring disbursement of loans by banks to priority sector like agriculture, small and medium enterprises.
