{"id":69316,"date":"2026-03-18T18:20:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=69316"},"modified":"2026-03-18T18:20:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:50:39","slug":"parliamentary-committees-fiscal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/18-03-2026\/parliamentary-committees-fiscal","title":{"rendered":"Parliamentary Committees as Watchdogs of Fiscal Governance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance report has criticized the Ministry of Planning and NITI Aayog for underutilisation of funds and poor financial management, with spending falling below 36% in FY24 and FY25.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are Parliamentary Standing Committees?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Parliamentary Standing Committees (PSCs) are <strong>permanent committees of Parliament<\/strong> constituted to examine, scrutinise, and oversee the functioning of the executive.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These committees<strong> continue to function throughout the year,<\/strong> unlike ad hoc committees which are temporary.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Types of Parliamentary Standing Committees:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Department-Related Standing Committees (DRSCs):<\/strong> It examines demands for Grants of ministries, bills referred to them and policy issues. Example: Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Financial Committees:<\/strong> Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Estimates Committee and Committee on Public Undertakings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Other Standing Committees: <\/strong>Business Advisory Committee, Committee on Privileges and Rules Committee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Role of Parliamentary Standing Committees<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Detailed Financial Scrutiny Beyond Parliament:<\/strong> Parliamentary debates often lack time for detailed examination of budgetary provisions.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Standing Committees undertake <strong>granular scrutiny of Demands for Grants, <\/strong>expenditure trends, and utilisation patterns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Evidence-Based and Non-Partisan Oversight:<\/strong> Committees function in a non-partisan manner, relying on <strong>expert inputs and data-driven analysis<\/strong>. Their reports provide <strong>objective evaluation of policy implementation and fiscal discipline.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Monitoring of Executive Functioning: <\/strong>Committees operate throughout the year and ensure continuous oversight over ministries and departments. This enhances transparency and accountability in governance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges in India\u2019s Budgetary Forecasting and Utilisation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Unrealistic and Inflated Budgetary Forecasting:<\/strong> Ministries often project expenditure requirements without realistic assessment of implementation capacity.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The continuous rise in allocations despite poor utilisation reflects weak forecasting mechanisms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Underutilisation of Allocated Funds: <\/strong>There exists a significant gap between Budget Estimates (BE) and Actual Expenditure (AE). Underutilisation leads to idle public resources and delayed developmental outcomes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Incremental Budgeting without Outcome Orientation: <\/strong>Budget allocations continue to rise annually without linking them to past performance or outcomes.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This reflects the dominance of input-based budgeting rather than outcome-based budgeting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fiscal Indiscipline: <\/strong>Ministries resort to excessive spending in the final quarter to exhaust allocated funds. Such spending <strong>violates Quarterly Expenditure Plan (QEP) <\/strong>norms and fiscal prudence principles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The observations of the Parliamentary Committee reaffirm its critical role in <strong>ensuring executive accountability<\/strong> and fiscal prudence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Strengthening outcome-based budgeting, adherence to QEP norms, and integration of policy with finance is essential for improving <strong>governance outcomes and restoring credibility <\/strong>to India\u2019s fiscal framework.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_international\/issues\/176157\/OPS\/GSHFMORB6.1+GI2FNSHAJ.1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance report has criticized the Ministry of Planning and NITI Aayog for underutilisation of funds and poor financial management, with spending falling below 36% in FY24 and FY25. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> What are Parliamentary Standing Committees? <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Parliamentary Standing Committees (PSCs) are permanent committees of Parliament constituted to examine, scrutinise, and oversee the functioning of the executive. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> These committees continue to function throughout the year, unlike ad hoc committees which are temporary. <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/18-03-2026\/parliamentary-committees-fiscal \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69318,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69316\/revisions\/69318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}