Budget: Mukherjee to interact with Cong leaders on Tuesday

New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) As rising prices and interestrates worry the common man ahead of the Union Budget 2011-12,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will be visiting the AICCheadquarters on Tuesday for consultations with party leaderson the exercise.

The Finance Minister, who has interacted with severalinterest groups including the industry so far, will be seekingsuggestions from Congress leaders on how to make the Budget tobe presented on Feb 28, an instrument to take forward theparty''s policies and programmes.

Since the Congress came to power at the Centre via theUPA mode in 2004, Finance Ministers have been interacting withparty leaders ahead of the Budget.

Experts say inflation, Current Account Deficit,pressure for lowering down the import duty, providing levelplaying field to the domestic industries and increasing thegovernment revenue are some of the problems being faced by thegovernment ahead of the Budgetary exercise.

A section of the ruling party, however, believes thatthese were only "proforma" consultations given the fact thatthe preparation of Budget has reached an advanced stage bythis time.

Budget session of Parliament commencing on Feb 21 isbeing held at a time when there is a deadlock between theGovernment and the opposition over the issue of JPC to probethe 2G scam.

Mukherjee, who is also the Leader of the Lok Sabha,has last week held a meeting with all political parties toresolve the stalemate and expected to have furtherconsultations with them this week to ensure that the threemonth long session will be a smooth affair unlike the wintersession which was a washout following the deadlock.