New Delhi, Aug 8 (IANS): Rejecting the claims that the inflation has risen in the last four years, the government on Tuesday said instead, it has gone down continuously.

"There is no rise in prices of essential food items. In fact it has gone down continuously," Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said in Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.

Ridiculing the Samajwadi Party's Sukhram Singh Yadav's claim that the government has failed on this front, Goyal said the NDA government successfully brought down the inflation rate to 2 per cent which used to be at 9 per cent and 12 per cent during the UPA.

"In recent months there has been a rise but next month it will again go down," he said.

Goyal also said the rise in prices of petrol and diesel are not due to GST but due to international reasons. There is no GST on oil rates, he added.

The Minister said the food inflation based on consumer food price index has reduced from 4.9 per cent in 2015-16 to 4.2 per cent in 2016-17 and further 1.8 per cent in 2017-18.

"Almost on all products, the prices have actually fallen. If you take Tur/Arhar Dal, from Rs 109 in 2015, it is currently down to Rs 71. If you take Urad Dal, from Rs 105 in 2015, it is down to Rs 71. If you take Moong Dal, from Rs 102 in 2015, it is down to Rs 73. I can go on and on. Onion was at Rs 31.90 in 2015, it is now Rs 22. Potato was at Rs 16 in 2015 and in 2017, and it is down to Rs 14.94," he said.

Goyal said there may be a few items where there is a nominal increase, but overall there has been a significant reduction in food inflation in the last four years.