November 18, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 22, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: The first meeting of the newly-constituted National Finance Commission (NFC) will be held here on Tuesday to evolve a consensus on a resource-sharing formula for the next five years.

The meeting, to be presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, will be attended by the finance ministers of the four provinces and other federal and provincial governments’ officials.

A senior official of the finance ministry told Dawn that the federal government wanted to make provinces self-sufficient by providing them adequate resources in the new NFC award.

However, he said, provinces would be apprised about the centre’s obligations towards debt servicing, defence needs and the running of civil expenditures.

“We would discuss both the old and the new NFC formulas to arrive at an acceptable decision,” the official said, expressing the hope that a consensus would be achieved so that there would be no subsequent heart burning or ill-feeling among the provinces against each other or against the centre.

He said Tuesday’s meeting would be introductory in nature and would be followed by more meetings both in Islamabad and the provincial capitals to finalize the new NFC award.

“In case differences emerge among the NFC members, participants would form groups and these groups would offer suggestions to sort out these differences amicably,” the official said.

He said he did not think Punjab would raise the demand of royalty on its cotton and wheat production.