Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to present the 2009-10 general budget on 3 July. "Parliament's budget session is proposed from 29 June to 7 August and the budget could be presented on 3 July," an official in the parliamentary affairs ministry told reporters in New Delhi.

He said the Economic Survey, the annual report on the state of economy, was likely to be presented on 2 July. a day after the railway budget on 1 July. The proposed dates need to cleared by the cabinet and notified by the president's office, he said.

If the atmosphere in Parliament remains disruption-free, the United Progressive Alliance government may extend the budget session by two weeks till the middle of August in order to introduce more bills, according to a Business Standard report.

After the Lok Sabha session was adjourned sine die on Tuesday, top leaders of different political parties met in the Speaker's chamber. There, finance minister Pranab Mukehrjee told the leader of the opposition L K Advani that the government was willing to extend the budget session for another two weeks.

''I told Advani that if there are no disruptions, the government would like to continue the session till middle of August,'' Mukherjee told the paper. He went a step further to add that if the opposition co-operated, the new UPA government was even willing to hold 26 weeks of Parliament in a year as per the earlier practice. This will effectively mean that Houses will sit for six months in a year.

Mukherjee said the Opposition parties, especially the BJP, had demonstrated in the first session of the 15th Lok Sabha that their attitude had changed. ''They have shown a positive attitude. I hope they will continue with this in the coming days as well.''

Wider consultations
Mukherjee is also holding more broad-based pre-budget consultations than his predecessors, according to various reports. The finance minister is meeting experts from the electronics, information technology and financial sectors as well as exporters. In another departure from recent practice, Mukherjee will also meet the finance ministers of the states on 11 June.

During the last few years, finance ministers like P Chidambaram and Jaswant Singh limited their pre-budget discussions to industry lobbies, economists, farmers and trade unions. Mukherjee is aiming to bring more stake-holders into the discussions.

Apart from the general discussion on the budget, the government is planning to have separate debate on demands for grants on a maximum of four ministries in each house of parliament, the Business Standard reported. This will give an opportunity to the opposition to raise questions and debate over these ministries specifically.

Mukherjee also met Reserve Bank of India (RBI) overnor D Subbarao last week at his North Block office. While Subbarao remained tight-lipped about the meeting, industry chambers informed the media that they have sought fiscal sops to boost corporate investments.

"We expect the main focus to be on infrastructure, rural economy and education in the Union Budget," Bank of Baroda cairman and mnaging drector M D Mallya told PTI in Mumbai.

About the agenda of next week's meeting between bankers and the finance minister, Mallya said it would be the routine quarterly meeting. The discussions with Mukherjee would centre on credit demand, interest rate scenario and performance of the corporates, he said.