Worried over rising food inflation, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday asked the states to remove local levies like octroi and mandi tax to bridge the gap between wholesale and retail prices. Addressing State Finance Ministers in New Delhi during the Pre-Budget deliberations, he urged state governments to play their part in controlling inflation. He said, there is a need to urgently look into supply management of items that are driving the current round of food inflation.The minister asserted that bottlenecks in supply chain have to be removed and States have to take steps to enhance agriculture productivity and create efficient distribution and marketing infrastructure.The Minister said that there is also a need to cut down on the wastage of foodgrains. Talking about efforts taken by the central government, he said, it has taken measures to facilitate imports and, when required restrict exports to ensure supply of essential commodities. Pranab Mukherjee has completed pre budget discussions with all stake holders.Tackling high rate of inflation, containing fiscal deficit, enhancing agriculture productivity, plugging the leakages in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, remained at the centre the centre of discussions in almost all the meetings.He also exchanged views with economists and captains of industry on the impact of fiscal and monetary measures taken by the government to revive the economy and possibility of the gradual withdrawal of stimulus packages .Enhancing financial inclusion of rural population and reforms in the banking sector were also flagged during the meetings. Now the focus has shifted to fine tune the budget proposals with taming inflation high on the mind of the government.