lucknow the states finance department is once again busy making preparations for the states annual budget to be presented during the ongoing assembly session sometime in february when asked to comment an official puts it the budget preparation has already been completed and it can be put up anytime for the perusal of chief minister mulayam singh yadav who also holds the finance portfoliosignificantly it was on this light that the cm called the cabinet meeting on saturday which is otherwise a holiday normally the cabinet is held on every tuesday but the meeting is said to be meant exclusively to discuss the budget proposals the cabinet meeting is fixed for the evening as the cm is away in delhi however the date and time for presenting the budget in the assembly would be decided at a business advisory committee meeting of the house slated to be held on february 2 and 3the budget according to indications available will be a popular one this time with no new doses of taxation this is because the government can illafford to go in for harsh measures in view of elections which are expected to be held before their schedule in 2007for the government there is much to celebrate in the increased plan outlay this is due to the fact that the planning commission has approved a plan size of rs 19000 crore which was much more than the governments own estimates for rs 16500 crore the increase is almost 40 per cent over the current plan size of rs 13500 crore the increased plan size is thus expected to have its impact on the states growth rate while this was 01 per cent in 200203 it went up to 59 per cent in 200405 and it is likely to cross six per cent during the current financial year and for the coming financial year it is expected to go up to nearly eight per cent provided the delivery system is improvedwhat goes to the states credit is the tax recovery which shows an overall increase of 23 per cent over the previous years and reduction of revenue deficit apart from this the scheme initiated towards education for all distribution of kanya vidhya dhan setting up a bhoomi sena and reform in agricultural and allied sectors like horticulture hold promise for the stateapart from this the cause of worry for the government is the fiscal imbalance the budget estimate reveals that the deficit is likely to remain well around rs 5000 crore and what makes this precarious is the gap of around rs 400 crore between the monthly revenue receipts and expenditure further this is made complicated by a hefty annual interest of over rs 12000 crore on the central borrowings and high salary bills devouring around 80 per cent of the total fund available