WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The federal deficit appears on track to register less than $300 billion for the budget year ending Sept. 30, as surging tax revenues continue to signal significant improvement from White House estimates released in February – though only modest gains from last year.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which makes estimates for lawmakers, said Friday that the deficit for the first three quarters of fiscal 2006 came in $41 billion less than the red ink recorded for the same period in 2005.

The 2005 deficit registered $318 billion. It would take major erosion in the fiscal picture in the final three months of the budget year for the deficit to exceed $300 billion.