Union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee has begun the pre-budget consultations with several stakeholders, including agriculturists and economists today in New Delhi. These consultations are held in order to receive views on the various policies to be incorporated in the upcoming financial year 2012-2013. There would be a series of meetings with the industry bigwigs, sectoral experts and trade union leaders over the next three weeks to gather suggestions to make a balanced budget.