Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney has started to outline his spending plans for 2013/14.
It is understood that the minister, who is presenting his budget to Holyrood, will signal an end to the public sector pay freeze.
Mr Swinney has said his plans will be a "relentless pursuit of economic growth", despite UK government cuts.
Opposition MSPs earlier warned the economy must be at the heart of the budget.
- Follow as-it-happens video and text coverage of John Swinney presenting his 2013/14 budget to MSPs at Holyrood. The page will be live on the site from 14:30.
- Watch a special BBC 2 Scotland budget programme starting at 14:30.
The freeze on public sector pay for those earning more than £21,000 was implemented in the 2011/12 financial year and was due to come to an end in March 2013.
Mr Swinney has direct control over pay when it comes to Scottish government workers and staff at quangos, but local authority employees negotiate directly with council bosses.
The minister will tell MSPs how much money will be allocated to schools, the NHS, housing and other devolved areas from a total cash budget of £28.4bn.
Ahead of his budget address, he said: "At a time when we face significant economic challenges this government is focussed on jobs, economic growth, protecting public services and supporting Scotland's household budgets.
"The government has argued consistently that we need to have a strong programme of capital investment to support investment in the Scottish economy, in particular the construction sector."
Scottish Conservative finance spokesman, Gavin Brown, warned though that the budget had to put the economy centre stage and not just pay "lip service" to it.
Growth and fairnessHe said: "In the past the SNP has simply talked about prioritising the economy without actually doing it. It is time for them to stop harming areas that help economic growth such as housing and colleges, and stop introducing Scotland-only taxes such as the damaging retail levy."
Labour's finance spokesman Ken Macintosh said he wanted to see a budget for jobs, growth and fairness.
He added: "It is scandalous that rather than putting in place a substantial employment programme, the SNP have now laid off more than 30,000 public sector workers in little more than a year.
"John Swinney needs to stop hiding behind Westminster or trying to blame our local authorities and start taking responsibility for his own budget decisions."
20 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-19653187#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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