Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun met UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal Friday in a bid to convince the opposition parties to allow the government to introduce a full-fledged budget for the new fiscal year.

In the meeting held at Khanal's Dallu residence, FM Pun said the government was ready to prepare the budget in consultation with all major parties and that the budget must be full-fledged.

However, Khanal said his party along with other opposition parties was not ready to let the government to introduce full-fledged budget. "The caretaker government lacks authority to introduce full budget," RSS quoted Khanal as saying after the meeting.

Finance Minister Pun met the UML chairman as part of his consultations to agree the opposition parties on a full budget. He met Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala Thursday evening and made a similar call.

FM Pun had had also a joint discussion with former Finance Minister from the UML and the NC, Surendra Pandey and Ram Saran Mahat, respectively, at Hayatt Hotel earlier this week. nepalnews.com