Under attack from Opposition on the issue of rising prices, the Finance Minister today hit out at states for not taking appropriate steps to check hoarding and said that the Centre is "sensitive" to the problem.

Listing out a series of efforts by the government to ameliorate the sufferings of the poor, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in the Lok Sabha that both the states as well as the Centre would have to collectively address the issue and take concrete steps including revamping the public distribution system (PDS).

The general inflation was 10.55 per cent in June, though the food inflation slipped to single digit at 9.67 per cent in week ended July 17.

Amid exchange of barbs during the reply to the debate of government action on inflation, Mukherjee said: "I am from a village... I studied under a kerosene lamp till my 10th class...commuted to school by walking, in today's terminology, 10 km everyday. Don't ridicule my sensitivity... sensitivity should not be a temporary thing...".

The government, he said, has kept the selling prices of foodgrains at PDS for the poor unchanged since 2002.

Hitting back at the opposition BJP, whose members constantly interrupted his reply, Mukherjee said that "when Petroleum Minister and I sat together and decided to increase prices of kerosene I was sensitive to the sufferings of poor... But what happened when NDA government (led by BJP) increased the kerosene price from Rs two to Rs 9 (a litre). We have increased only from Rs 9 to 12...

"Mere rhetorics can't locate petroleum sources... the priority is also to ensure the availability of products," he said, reminding that oil marketing PSUs were given a subsidy of Rs 1.03 lakh crore in 2008-09 to ensure that petro products were available at affordable prices.

Holding states also responsible for price rise, Mukherjee said, "They have (powers under) the Essential Commodities...

take hoarding and de-hoarding operations. ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) is with states...I will not pass on the buck to them alone."

He also sought support from all the political parties for immediate finalisation of Goods and Services Tax to enable the government to introduce bill for constitutional amendment for ushering in the major tax reform.

Such a tax reform would help check price variations and would be a win-win situation for all, he said adding that the states should also remember that 34 per cent of their tax kitty was coming out of the levies imposed by these on petro products to collect a total of Rs 72,000 crore.