New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "periodic interventions" which have brought down wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation to a 21-month low of 5.85 per cent and retail inflation to an 11-month low of 5.88 per cent in November, even as she expressed confidence that government will meet the fiscal deficit target of 6.4 per cent of the GDP in the current fiscal.

She said that the government will take measures to further ease inflation, which came down below the RBI's upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent for the first time in 11 months.

"We will bring down inflation further for the sake of common people," the Finance Minister while replying to the discussion in the Lok Sabha on supplementary demands for grants for 2022-23 and excess demands for grants for 2019-20.

The Lok Sabha later passed the Appropriation (Nos.4 and 5) Bills 2022.

The Appropriation Bill gives power to the government to withdraw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India for meeting expenses for the current fiscal. With the passage of the supplementary demands for grants for 2022-23, the government will be able to spend an additional Rs 3.25 lakh crore for the current fiscal.

In her almost hour-long reply to the discussions on demands for grants, the Finance Minister said that the supplementary demands for grants were being sought at a time when global and emerging economies are facing severe headwinds.

Expressing optimism, Sitharaman said that despite the prevailing geopolitical situation and spillover impact, India continues to remain the fastest-growing economy with low levels of inflation and without any fear of stagflation, amid mild protests and comments from the opposition benches.

She credited Modi and her senior cabinet colleagues for coming up with periodic interventions to bring inflation down.

The Finance Minister repeated her previous statement that the rupee has done better against the dollar compared to other global currencies, amid jeers from the opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress members.

Touching upon the non-performing assets (NPAs), Sitharaman said that they have fallen sharply to 7.28 per cent by the end of March 2022.

India's forex reserves, she said, are one of the highest in the world, providing a cushion against global spillovers.

The Finance Minister also crossed swords with Trinamool members, when she commented during the course of her reply that the government gave "Ujjwala" (referring to the free LPG scheme for the poor) when it held the "matchstick" while others (alluding to violence after the West Bengal assembly polls last year) resorted to arson and looting when they held the matchstick.

The opposition raised objections when Sitharaman said that India is seeing a fall in demand for jobs under the rural employment guarantee programme or MGNREGA.

When the Congress and Trinamool members reacted to her comment, she said that MGNREGA is a demand driven programme which is seeing a declining trend, however the government had sought an additional Rs 16,400 crore for it, over and above the budgetary allocation of Rs 73,000 crore for the current fiscal.