TOKYO, Oct. 12 (Kyodo) - Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa expressed a desire Friday to bring consumer prices back to their fiscal 1997 levels by forestalling the deflationary pressure afflicting Japan's economy. "The Finance Ministry wants to return prices to the levels they were at in fiscal 1997, if possible," Shiokawa told the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Affairs. "The current consumer prices are down 1.3% to 1.4% compared with their levels in that year, so we want to push up the prices so as to recoup this margin of lost ground," he said. Shiokawa's comments were made at a time when falling prices are hammering companies' profitability by cutting into their product prices and profit margins. The finance minister also expressed hope that a supplementary budget can be devised as speedily as possible by computing tax revenues expected to accrue in the current fiscal year through March 31 next year. "Although tax revenue projections for the year have not yet been computed, I believe that we can complete the calculations by the end of next week," he said. Tax revenue projections for the fiscal year are expected to effect a government decision on whether or not to increase net government bond issuance for the year above the 30 trillion yen cap pledged by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, ministry sources sai