Come Budget-time, and the media is rife with rumours about which taxes will be raised or lowered, and the direction in which the government might make fresh public investment.

This year is no different – although the corporate sector seems to be a little more relaxed than it has usually been in the past on Budget eve.

It's not only the various industry lobbies that push their demands on the government through the media. The government too does some kite flying, to see how the public (or sections of industry) might react to plans on the anvil.

Sometimes very few of the rumours turn out to be true. They end up as nothing but wishful thinking, or statements of a utopian dream.

But which of the rumours will turn out to be true and which will be falsified this time?

We'll never know, will we, until Budget day?

We thought it might be an interesting exercise to list the various rumours and speculations on government plans, along with industry demands floating around, and then see how they actually fare on budget day. Catch the score on 29 February 2008!

Watch this space for the Agricultural expectations, and we'll keep adding to it as and when new ideas are floated. Those doing the rounds till now, are listed below:

• Income generated from agricultural advances by state co-operative banks and district central co-operative banks is likely to be exempted from tax from 2008/09.
• In order to at least part-fund a debt relief pacakge for farmers, the agriculture ministry has proposed a cess of 1 per cent on direct taxes and 2 per cent on indirect taxes.
• The bar on consumption loans for farmers may be raised by over Rs50,000, against the backdrop of farmer suicides that has rattled the government.
• The government might increase the notified area under the local urban development authority, from the current 8km to allow it to impose capital gains tax on the sale of agriculture land that has not been used for over two years for farming.
• The government wants to double farm incomes by 2010. Expected initiatives include doubling the rate of growth of public and private investment in agriculture, the launch of fresh irrigation projects, and the development of wasteland for productive use.
• The corpus of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund will get a boost by Rs2,000 crore, taking it to Rs14,000 crore in the forthcoming Budget. The last budget had seen it increase from Rs10,000 crore to Rs12,000 crore.