New Delhi, Dec 22 (IANS): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday concluded a week-long series of pre-budget consultation meetings with various stakeholders for the upcoming Budget for FY23.

All held in virtual mode, the first meeting was held on December 15 with agri and allied industry members.

More than 120 invitees representing seven stakeholder groups participated in eight meetings during the period, a Ministry of Finance statement said.

The stakeholder groups include representatives and experts from agriculture and agro processing industry, industry, infrastructure and climate change, financial sector and capital markets, services and trade, social sector, trade union and labour organisations, and economists.

"The stakeholder groups made several suggestions on various issues that included increased R&D spending, infrastructure status for digital services, incentives to hydrogen storage and fuel cell development, rationalisation of income tax slabs, investments in online safety measures etc., among others," the statement said.

Sitharaman assured that suggestions will be carefully considered while preparing the Budget document, which is slated to be tabled in Parliament on February 1, 2022.