"The government is conscious of the situation and if required, we would take steps to contain inflation," Minister of State for Finance P K Bansal said on the sidelines of a function between National Housing Bank and Helpage India.

Inflation for the week ended May 17 stood at 8.1 per cent against 7.82 in the previous week. During the UPA regime, the highest inflation, as per provisional figures, was 8.33 per cent in the week ended August 28, 2004.

Bansal said the government is "alive to the situation" and has taken steps, both fiscal as well as administrative, to bring down the rate of rising prices.

Since the March 31 decision of the Cabinet Committee on Prices to slash import duty on edibles oils and ban export of non-basmati rice to contain inflation, government has unveiled numerous measures to tame price rise.

It had also banned export of skimmed milk powder and goaded steel and cement manufacturers to cut and hold prices.

 To increase domestic availability of cement, the government on Tuesday withdrew tax refund scheme DEPB on their exports, just a day after it was notified. To top it all, the government has been asking manufacturing sector to hold the price line.