THE Punjab Assembly’s budget session will start from February 25 and continue till March 19. Disclosing this here on Wednesday, a spokesman of the Punjab government said that the session would begin with Governor's address on February 25 and the budget would be presented on March 11. The Cabinet allowed the state government to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Centre and NABARD to amend the provisions of Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, to revive the short term credit structure. In pursuance of the representations from trade and industry, the cabinet decided to grant ex-post facto approval to reduce the rate of VAT on furnace oil from 12.5% to 4%. The cabinet also approved to amend the Punjab Value Added Tax Act, 2005, regarding deemed assessment to enable the registered dealers to deposit a sum by way of composition money, at Rs 300 per lakh of the gross turnover with a minimum of Rs 1,000. The cabinet also granted approval to amend sub-section 5 of section 19 of the Punjab Value Added Tax, 2005 relating to input tax credit on schedule 'H' goods. The cabinet also decided to grant ex-post facto approval for allowing subsidy to all categories of consumers for neutralizing the impact due to increase in electricity tariff for the year 2007-08.