Senators from Mexico’s main opposition party met for the third straight day on Wednesday to debate rejecting a government proposal to raise consumption taxes ahead of a deadline to pass the law.

Lawmakers from Senate committees were due to meet with Finance Minister Agustin Carstens following the meeting to discuss the proposal.

Senators from the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, have spent the week mulling conservative President Felipe Calderon’s proposal to hike taxes as a way to reduce Mexico’s dependence on revenues from waning oil output and avoid a looming credit rating downgrade.

• By law, Congress has until the end of the month to pass the measure, which is part of a larger tax package in the 2010 budget.