After the successful merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda, the Narendra Modi government on Friday said the centre is looking to merge more state-run banks in future.

In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18, Subhash Chandra Garg, finance secretary, said, "The time has come for doing more strategic disinvestment and the government is conveying its clear intent on that front, "The government has examined case by case and is zeroing on companies which can be strategically divested."

Sharing the rationale of increasing duties of petrol and diesel, he said, "The crude prices were subdued in range of $60-65 per barrel. Earlier, the government had reduced the excise duty by Rs 4 per litre. So, when the crude goes down and the rupee is at a better value. The government can think of bringing back some of the tax revenues again and we needed tax revenues to be raised."

Talking on growth data controversy Garg said, "Arvind Subramanian thinks that the method which has been used in the new series provides some higher numbers for growth. He is not questioning that method has yielded these numbers. I don’t think that anybody has misapplied that method to come to this number and he has the problem with the method."