May 4, 2005	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1426

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LAHORE, May 3: The finance ministers of the four provinces are expected to meet here informally in a week’s time to sort out differences over distribution of resources from the divisible pool and pave way for finalization of the sixth National Finance Commission (NFC) award.

“Yes, we have been told by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to narrow down our differences on horizontal distribution of the resources,” Punjab Finance Minister Hasnain Bahadur Dareshek told reporters on Tuesday.

He said that he was hopeful the NFC award would be announced before the budget. The finance ministers meeting is a sequel to an informal meeting of the commission convened by the prime minister in Islamabad last week.

The NFC has not met formally since Mr Aziz took over as prime minister in August last year because of differences among the provinces over a formula for horizontal distribution of resources.

Sindh’s demand to treat revenue collection as one of the factors to determine the allocation of resources is being opposed by Punjab and the other two provinces. “At the Islamabad meeting we discussed all the issues related to the NFC,” Mr Dareshek said.