KARACHI, Feb 5: Neither there is any consensus on equal distribution (50:50) of taxes in divisible pool between the federation and provinces nor have provinces agreed on the principle of resource distribution among themselves on multiple criteria, participants of an National Finance Commission (NFC) meeting said at a joint press briefing on Thursday.

Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz announced that provincial ministers had expressed their positions on the resource distribution arrangement frankly and they would meet again in Peshawar on Feb 20.

Claiming that the NFC meeting on Thursday at Karachi had narrowed down differences among provinces, Mr Aziz was confident that the National Finance Commission would come out with a consensus award by March 31 and the next budget would be based on the arrangement of new formula.

He said finance ministers of Sindh and Balochistan were now close to each other on the distribution arrangement for Gas Development Surcharge. He said Punjab had sought to be included in these deliberations and it would join consultations.

"The federal government has agreed, in principle, to increase the provincial share from the existing 37.5 per cent," Mr Aziz said in reply to a question.

He made it clear that there was not any agreement on giving provinces 50pc from the divisible pool but "we have expressed our intentions to increase the share of provinces".

"The exact distribution ratio between the federal and provincial governments will be declared in the final award of the National Finance Commission on March 31," he announced.

He remained non-committal when asked whether Punjab had indicated any shift in its stance on the resource distribution arrangement on more than one criterion. Punjab insists on keeping population as the only criterion for resource distribution. Other provinces want revenue generation, backwardness and size of the province to be given due weightage in the formula.

"It has to be on the basis of give and take," he replied while answering questions which focused on conflicting nature of demands of provinces.

Mr Aziz was flanked by Syed Naeem Shah from Balochistan and Sirajul Haq from the NWFP on one side and Syed Sardar Ahmad from Sindh and Sardar Dareshak from Punjab on the other.

The National Finance Commissionmeeting was scheduled to be held in the afternoon but had to be delayed because Mr Aziz had to rush back to Islamabad to attend the cabinet meeting which discussed Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan's petition for clemency.

Syed Naeem Shah spoke of the friendly atmosphere at the NFC meeting and hoped that a consensus award would emerge. He welcomed the inclusion of Punjab in the GDS distribution talks.

Mr Haq said the NFC deliberations were making "slow and steady progress to reach a consensus". He was optimistic that the NFC award would provide ample resources to provinces to enable them to take up their development and non-development expenditure.

Mr Dareshak was a little elaborate and said the NFC meeting had discussed the inter-provincial resource distribution arrangement. He said Punjab was also one of the stakeholders in the GDS issue and was joining negotiations with "good intentions".

Syed Sardar said the issues involved in the National Finance Commission deliberations were complicated but expressed the hope that an amicable solution would be found by March 31, when a consensus award is expected.