Jangipur (West Bengal), July 12 - The central govenment has formed a committee to prepare a roadmap for merging the wholesale price index and the consumer price index, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here Sunday.

'A committee has been formed under the Central Statistical Organisation which is studying the trends in the wholesale price index and consumer price index and how soon both can be converged,' Mukherjee told reporters, responding to a query on the prices continuing their upward trend despite an unprecedented dip in the inflation rate.

'The report will come out very soon,' Mukherjee said.

Stressing that the government will meet the requirements of the private sector from the market, the finance minister said: 'Providing debt to the private sector is a necessity. They don't need to pay more interest for that'.