FM holds first ever pre-Budget consultations with NGOs

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has held a meeting with non governmental organizations (NGOs) to get their inputs for general budget 2011-12, in New Delhi, the fourth such pre-Budget consultations with stakeholders from different sectors.

This is the first time that NGOs, who have been asking for tax breaks, have been involved in the pre-Budget consultations process.

The finance minister ahs already held consultations with those from the agriculture sector on 7 January, industrialists on 11 January and representatives of different trade unions on 12 January.

He is due round-off the consultations with a meeting woth bankers on Monday, 17 January, with whom discussions are expected to revolve around macro issues like GDP growth, inflation and steps to prevent systemic failures in banking.

Welcoming representatives from different non-governmental organisations, Mukherjee said that feedback from the grassroots level was very important for effective policy making and for strengthening public accountability.

He said that the economy had recovered well in 2010-11 from an unprecedented global economic slowdown and had recorded one of the fastest growth rates, with broad- based growth in agriculture, industry and services.