The Budget exercise is in full swing with Finance Minister P Chidambaram deciding to meet interest groups from the first week of June.

He directed his officials to schedule the meetings from June 3, when he will receive inputs from top industrialists, to be followed by other stakeholders like bankers, agriculturists, trade unions and consumer groups.

Former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had preferred not to hold long darbars with interest groups and instead asked them to e-mail their suggestions to the ministry. Chidambaram has now revived the practice and will take inputs from interest groups for the regular Budget likely to be presented in the first week of July.

• The Interim Budget 2004-05

According to finance ministry sources, the expenditure department will soon commence dialogue with ministries that have big budgets. "We will re-assess the needs of the major ministries and update their spending requirements for the year," said a source.

The sources said the ministry had fixed an internal deadline of June end to complete the Budget-making process.

Since Parliament may take over a month to clear the Finance Bill, the ministry is simultaneously preparing for a vote-on-account allowing government expenditure for two more months till September.

The approval for the second vote-on-account could be taken in the first session of the 14th Lok Sabha beginning June 2. A final decision will, however, be taken only after consultation with the ministry of Parliamentary Affairs by this Friday.

The interim Budget for 2004-05 had taken Parliament approval authorising government expenditure for the first four months, April-July 2004.

Chidambaram has already held the first round of discussions with his Budget team. The sources said the ministry had started working on fresh ideas to raise resources for the "massive" public investment the minister had promised in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

Advisor to Finance Minister Vijay Kelkar too has presented the roadmap for eliminating the revenue deficit by March 31, 2008.