Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said that the government should end the oil subsidy to offset the additional subsidy burden arising out of the new Food Security Bill. Mr. Ahluwalia was speaking to reporters at the sidelines of an award function in Mumbai last evening.

Speaking on the GDP growth, he said that so far they are not sure whether the deceleration will end in the third quarter. He said that the October IIP was not good, however, if the growth rate is 7 per cent or even lower, like 6.8 percent, it will still be very good performance compared to what is happening elsewhere.

On the issue of inflation, Mr. Ahluwalia said that there is a sharp deceleration in food inflation and as food inflation goes down, core inflation will also come down and by March, it should be 7 percent or just above 8 percent.

Meanwhile, speaking at the award function, Mr. Ahluwalia said that as the economic growth has hit a rough patch, the immediate priority should be to get many stalled projects going. He said that in the near-term, we should concentrate on implementation problems being faced by infrastructure projects.

Mr. Ahluwalia said that while the macroeconomic policy decisions will be taken in the Budget, we should sort out project implementation issues so that there will be some kind of momentum.