ISLAMABAD, May 25: The federal government has decided to hold yet another informal meeting of the National Finance Commission to seek provinces' cooperation in order to announce the sixth award before the budget, Dawn has learnt.

Finance ministry sources confirmed that a 'last and final' effort would be made to hold the NFC meeting in this week. The sources said that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who is currently on a visit to Saudi Arabia, had told Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz to give the provincial governments one last chance in the larger national interest.

The finance ministry sources said the ministry was not hopeful about the agreement in view of the strong positions taken by the provinces on the issue. However, they said, if the provinces showed sincerity to iron out the differences, then the federal budget could be delayed for a week.

The sources said that the provinces could be offered a 'progressive increase' in their share that could finally touch their demand of 50 per cent after five years. This would mean that their share in percentage terms would keep on increasing every year. For example, the provincial share could start at 47.4pc, followed by 47.9pc next and so on until it touched 50pc by the year 2010.