Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee says, rising food prices is a worry and the Reserve Bank should take whatever steps needed to tame the prices. He also talked about fiscal steps required to pull down the prices. His remarks at the AGM of Calcutta Chamber of Commerce comes ahead of monetary review by RBI next week. Mr. Mukerjee said, he asked the state governments to strengthen the Public Distribution System to provide food to the poor. Despite jump in industrial growth and 8.8 per cent growth in the first quarter of this fiscal, Mukherjee said he was sticking to his earlier growth projections of 8.5 to 8.75 per cent. On reforms in the taxation system, he said that the Direct Tax Code bill can be easily passed in Parliament.But there is for political consensus on Goods and Services Tax. Food inflation shot up to 11.47 per cent towards the end of August from 10.38 per cent in previous week as rains disrupted supply of essential items. This has fuelled expectations of a rate hike by the RBI in its mid-quarter policy review on Next Saturday.