ISLAMABAD, Dec 6: The federal government has started consultations with provincial governments to resume the process of finalizing the sixth National Finance Commission award.

However, formal discussions on the award would begin in January 2005, sources said here on Monday. They said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz held a meeting with the provincial finance ministers here on Monday at a dinner he hosted for them and exchanged views on the subject.

The sources said the finance ministers had been advised not to make any public announcement about the informal meeting on the NFC. Non-official members of the NFC and secretariat staff of the ministers were not invited to the meeting.

They said the major question before the centre and provinces was if the NFC needed to be reconstructed after elevation of the commission's chairman Shaukat Aziz to the post of the prime minister while he continued to hold the portfolio of finance minister.

NWFP Finance Minister Sirajul Haq said the meeting with the prime minister was not NFC-specific but said "all issues are discussed when such a meeting takes place." It was an 'indoor' meeting, he added.

Sindh Finance Minister Sardar Ahmad said no proposals could be put forward unless these had been discussed in the provincial cabinet and he had not yet discussed the subject with the chief minister. When asked if the NFC would be reconstituted, he said that NFC remained intact and there was no need for any change.