LAHORE, April 18: The work on the Punjab’s budget for 2003-04 was likely to be sped up in the first week of the next month, officials of the finance department said on Friday.

“The department has undertaken different exercises to make the budget for the next fiscal at various levels, but the pace is slow. It is mainly because we still don’t know whether to base our estimates of (revenue) receipts and expenditure for the next year on existing resource allocation available to the province under the 1997 NFC award,” a senior official said.

The Punjab has already begun lobbying for an interim NFC award for the next financial year due to little chances of finalization of the new award. The five-year tenure of the existing 1997 award ended on June 30, 2002, but was extended for one year by the president.

“We have neither been intimated about another extension of the award nor have been told to wait for the new one so far,” the officials said.

However, they said: “It is the age of computers and we can do well even if an interim or final award is given in the first week of the next month.”