The government has expressed serious concern over the rising prices. In an interview to "India Today" magazine, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, managing inflation has been his biggest challenge as increasing cost of essential goods hit poor the most. He, however, maintained that he would not stand in the way of higher growth trajectory. The Minister said, the government has been able to bring down the food inflation from 20 per cent to 16 per cent. The inflation for the month ending August was 8.5 per cent, while the food inflation was 16.24 per cent for week ended September 25th. Answering questions on the focus of economic policies of Congress, he said, common man has always been in focus but in different forms for inclusive growth.Referring to Goods and Services Tax – GST – Mukherjee said, there is a broad political consensus on the necessity of GST and also about the need to remove multiple points of taxation. Mukherjee admitted that there were reservations from some states who think that GST would deny them the autonomy of imposing tax which they believe is their sovereign right. Mukherjee observed, politics should not be mixed with major economic decisions.The centre is trying to evolve a consensus on constitutional amendments to implement GST, which will eventually subsume several indirect taxes like excise, service tax, sales tax etc.