Officially, Dr Manmohan Singh has called this crucial meeting on presentation of the Union Budget and its time.

Normally, Union Budgets are presented in February. Therefore, the point to be discussed in the meeting is whether government should go for vote-on-account in the month of December itself to hold Lok Sabha election in February 2009 or should present vote-on-account or budget in February, obviously, to hold general elections in April.

According to the Sources in the Prime Minister's Office, Dr Manmohan Singh is scheduled to meet the finance ministry team, led by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on December 10.

The time has been deliberately fixed two days after the results of the assembly elections in six states would be out.

The Congress leadership as well as the United Progressive Alliance members would have by then decided on the timing of the Lok Sabha polls.

Finance ministry bureaucrats, however, are not expecting the Union Budget to be presented before going to the polls and as such are busy getting ready the budgetary calculations for 2009-10 for the next government to decide.

Parliament, which went into a long recess on October 24 after just six sittings, will be resuming its session from December 10. With only 10 sittings listed for the resumed session that ends on December 22.

The government appears disinclined to hold any further session before going to the polls, and as such it has to get all financial business up to June approved by Parliament in this very truncated session in December, sources in the parliamentary affairs ministry said.#