Which of the following is/are a Financial Committee of Parliament in India ?
1. Public Accounts Committee
2. Estimate Committee
3. Committee on Public Undertakings
Select the correct answer from the c

Question

Which of the following is/are a Financial Committee of Parliament in India ?
1. Public Accounts Committee
2. Estimate Committee
3. Committee on Public Undertakings
Select the correct answer from the code given below :
Code :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, All 1, 2 and 3. In Indian parliamentary practice the expression 'financial committees' has a settled, closed meaning: it covers exactly three standing committees — the Public Accounts Committee, the Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings. The three sit at different points of the same money cycle. The Estimates Committee looks forward, examining the estimates included in the Budget and suggesting economies in administration and improvements in organisation. The Public Accounts Committee looks backward, examining the appropriation accounts and the audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General after the money has been spent, to see whether it went where Parliament voted it. The Committee on Public Undertakings covers the commercial arm of government, examining the reports and accounts of central public sector undertakings — work that before 1964 was split between the other two. Since every one of the three named in the question belongs to that set, the answer is 'All 1, 2 and 3'.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The Public Accounts Committee and the Estimates Committee are the two older financial committees, and a candidate carrying the pre-1964 position stops here. But the Committee on Public Undertakings was created in 1964 precisely to take the scrutiny of public sector undertakings off the other two, and it has been counted as the third financial committee ever since.  (b) This drops the Public Accounts Committee — the oldest of the three, dating from 1921 under the Government of India Act, 1919, and the one most closely identified with financial control, since it is the committee that takes up the CAG's audit reports. Leaving it out of a list of financial committees is not defensible on any reading.  (d) Right that the Public Accounts Committee is a financial committee, but far too narrow. The Estimates Committee — with thirty members, the largest committee of Parliament — and the Committee on Public Undertakings are equally part of the standard trio, and both are constituted and function in the same way.

Concept: Parliament's control over the purse does not end when the Budget is voted; it continues through committees, and the three financial committees divide that work in time. The Estimates Committee acts ex ante — are the estimates sound, and can the same result be had for less? The Public Accounts Committee acts ex post — was the money spent as voted, and what does the CAG's audit show? The Committee on Public Undertakings covers the state's commercial undertakings, whose accounts are not ordinary departmental accounts. All three are constituted the same way: members are elected annually by the House concerned through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, and they hold office for one year. Crucially, a Minister cannot be a member of any of them, and a member who is appointed a Minister ceases to belong to the committee — the point being that these are instruments of the legislature against the executive.

State PCS 2025 Q43 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q43 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer