Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday backed the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) in the context of reports on various scams, saying the government auditor has not exceeded his jurisdiction.

"I am making it clear that I do not think that CAG is exceeding its jurisdiction or things like that, because basic responsibility of the CAG is to identify, if there is any, lapse," he said during a question-answer session at the Economic Editors conference here.

The statement is significant in view of the attacks from some quarters in the government criticising the CAG for exceeding its mandate. CAG's reports on 2G spectrum allocation and Commonwealth Games had evoked sharp reaction from the government functionaries.

"So far as the role of the CAG is concerned, it is a constitutional role. As far as my knowledge about the functioning of the CAG is concerned, the job of CAG is only to find out financial irregularities...in context of rules,laws and regulations as laid down by the government," Mukherjee said.

He further said, "If out of 100, in 98 cases government has done the correct things, they will ignore it. They just pick up only those two things where some irregularities have taken place".

However, he added that it is for the public accounts committee (PAC) to examine whether the "actual losses has taken place or whether it is a notional loss".

A CAG report, Mukherjee said, "is not automatically accepted by parliament. PAC examines it; they submit a report; and then if the report is accepted by parliament, action takes place."

"The steady rise in policy rates was reflected in borrowings as well as lending rates with a lag," the finance minister said, adding that though reserve money growth witnessed a deceleration, broad money growth remained above the indicative trajectory in the current fiscal.

According to Mukherjee, food inflation has significantly dropped from a peak of 20 per cent in February, 2010, to about 8 per cent in June-July 2011.

The minister pointed out that the source of inflation has now switched to non-food items due to imported global commodity inflation -- in particular, crude oil.

About lowering the economic growth projections for this fiscal by experts, Mukherjee said, "Most observers are expecting India's growth to go down to below 8 per cent. This is disappointing, but at the same time, we must not lose perspective of the global situation. There is a slowdown all over the world."

On the government's response to the situation, he said, "A number of policy measures are being taken and fortunately, the long-run indicators look robust."

"Credit offtake is also showing health trends. Last year, from April to September, bank credit grew by 19.2 per cent, which is 19.5 per cent in the same period this fiscal," he said, adding that services have done well and agriculture is expected to grow at 3 per cent this fiscal.

"I am sure these factors would sustain growth," he said.