FM to meet regulators on Jan 21 for pre-budget consultations

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet Reserve Bank Governor D Subbarao, SEBI Chairman C B Bhave and heads of the other regulatory bodies on January 21 as part of the pre-budget consultations.

Mukherjee, sources said, would use inputs from the regulators while framing his proposals for the 2011-12 budget.

Besides Subbarao and Bhave, the Finance Minister will also meet IRDA Chairman J Hari Narayan and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) chief Yogesh Aggarwal.

The Finance Minister has already met industrialists, bankers, economists, NGOs and agriculturalists. The meeting with Subbarao comes ahead of the policy review by the Reserve Bank scheduled on January 25.

The RBI is widely expected to raise the short term lending and borrowing rates (repo and reverse repo) by 25 basis points each in its review meeting to rein in inflation.