Mumbai: Prime minister Manmohan Singh, yesterday said that he favoured a national policy on job reservations for the weaker sections in the private sector, though not by legislation.

"It can be done voluntarily by the corporate sector. I am not suggesting jobs should be given without merit. People can be trained," Singh said.

Addressing a press conference here Singh said, "Nobody can stop an idea whose time has come."

"The country should ensure that weaker sections like scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, minorities and women get a fair and square deal."

Singh added that he had asked the union agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, who heads a committee on reservations, to continue his discussions on with the private sector.

The prime minister however, ruled out the introduction of any legislation to enforce job reservations in the private sector.

Asked about the mounting oil price and its impact on inflation, Singh said the government had a mechanism in place to tackle the situation even if oil prices continued to hover above the $50 a barrel mark.

Later, addressing a gathering of industrialists, Singh said more tax reforms would be announced in the next union budget. The UPA government did not have enough time to work on the last budget and, therefore, could not bring out several changes that it had wanted to. Now that the government was firmly in the saddle it was committed to implementing a progressive tax system. "The government is committed to toning up the functioning of the public sector undertakings and public sector banks," he said.