PARLIAMENTARY
COMMITTEES - POLITY
News:
What did the
Parliamentary Committee recommend with respect to local fintech players?
What's
in the news?
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In its report presented to Parliament, the
Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has raised
concerns about the dominance of fintech apps owned by foreign entities in the
Indian ecosystem and recommended that local players be promoted.
Key
takeaways:
●
It mentioned that the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) commanded a 73.5% share of the total
digital payments in terms of volume in FY 2022-23.
●
However, its share in terms of value was only 6.67% in the same period.
Key
takeaways:
●
The Committee in its report emphasised
that digital payment apps must be effectively regulated as the use of digital
platforms to make payments in India is on the rise.
●
It noted that it will be more ‘feasible’
for regulatory bodies such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National
Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to control local apps, as compared with foreign
apps, which operate in multiple jurisdictions.
●
The Committee observed that fintech
companies, apps and platforms that are owned by foreign entities, such as Walmart-backed PhonePe and Google Pay,
dominate the Indian fintech sector. PhonePe commands the leading market share
in volume terms, followed by Google Pay,
at 46.91% and 36.39% respectively.
Parliamentary
Committees:
●
A Parliamentary Committee is a panel of
MPs that is appointed or elected by the
House or nominated by the Speaker, and which works under the direction of the
Speaker. It presents its report to the House or to the Speaker.
●
Parliamentary Committees have their origins in the British Parliament.
●
They draw their authority from Article 105 (It deals with the
privileges of MPs) and Article 118
(Parliament authority to make rules to regulate its procedure and conduct of
business).
Role
of Parliamentary Committees:
●
Legislative business begins when a Bill is
introduced in either House of Parliament.
●
But the process of lawmaking is often
complex, and Parliament has limited time for detailed discussions.
●
Also, the political polarisation and
shrinking middle ground has been leading to increasingly rancorous and
inconclusive debates in Parliament - as a result of which a great deal of
legislative business ends up taking place in the Parliamentary Committees
instead.
What
are the various Committees of Parliament?
Parliamentary Committees
can be classified as follows.
Financial
Committees:
●
The Financial Committees include the
Estimates Committee, Public Accounts Committee, and the Committee on Public
Undertakings.
●
These committees were constituted in 1950.
Departmentally
Related Standing Committees:
●
Seventeen Departmentally Related Standing
Committees came into being in 1993.
●
Their function is to examine the budgetary proposals and crucial government policies.
●
The aim was to increase Parliamentary scrutiny, and to give members more time and a
wider role in examining important legislation.
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The number of Committees was subsequently
increased to 24.
●
There are 16 Departmentally Related
Standing Committees for Lok Sabha and eight for Rajya Sabha. However, every
Committee has members from both Houses. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha panels are
headed by members of these respective Houses.
●
Among the important Lok Sabha panels are Agriculture; Coal; Defence; External
Affairs; Finance; Communications & Information Technology; Labour;
Petroleum & Natural Gas; and Railways.
●
The important
Rajya Sabha panels include Commerce; Education; Health & Family
Welfare; Home Affairs; and Environment.
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Each of these Committees has 31 members -
21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha.
Other
Standing Committees:
●
There are other Standing Committees for
each House, such as the Business Advisory Committee and the Privileges
Committee.
Ad
hoc Committees:
●
Ad hoc Committees are appointed for a specific purpose.
●
They cease to exist after they have
completed the task assigned to them, and have submitted a report to the House.
Joint
Parliamentary Committee (JPC):
●
Parliament can also constitute a Joint
Parliamentary Committee (JPC) with a special purpose, with members from both
Houses, for detailed scrutiny of a subject or Bill.
●
Also, either of the two Houses can set up
a Select Committee with members from that House.
●
JPCs and Select Committees are usually
chaired by ruling party MPs, and are disbanded after they have submitted their
report.
Key
takeaways:
●
The Presiding
Officer of each House nominates members to these panels.
●
A Minister
is not eligible for election or nomination to Financial Committees, and
certain Departmentally Related Committees.
●
Presiding
Officers use their discretion to refer a matter to a Parliamentary Committee,
but this is usually done in consultation with leaders of parties in the House.
●
The appointment of heads of the Committees
is also done in a similar way.
●
By convention, the main Opposition party
gets the post of PAC chairman; it is currently with the Congress. Chairmanship
of some key committees has been allocated to opposition parties in the past.
However, this pattern has changed in the latest rejig.
●
MPs typically have a one-year tenure on Parliamentary Committees. Usually, the
composition of a Committee remains more or less the same in terms of
representation of the various parties.
Role
of head of Committees:
●
The heads of the panels schedule their
meetings.
●
They play a clear role in preparing the
agenda and the annual report, and can take decisions in the interest of the
efficient management of the Committee.
●
The chairperson presides over the meetings
and can decide who should be summoned before the panel.
Powers
of Committees:
●
An
invitation to appear before a Parliamentary Committee is equivalent to a
summons from a court: If one cannot come, he or she has to give reasons, which
the panel may or may not accept.
●
However, the chairman should have the
support of the majority of the members to summon a witness.
●
Reports of Departmentally Related Standing
Committees are recommendatory in nature.
●
They are not binding on the government, but they do carry significant
weight. In the past, governments have accepted suggestions given by the
Committees and incorporated them into the Bill after it has come back to the
House for consideration and passage.
●
These panels also examine policy issues in
their respective Ministries and make suggestions to the government.
●
The government has to report back on
whether these recommendations have been accepted. Based on this, the Committees
table Action Taken Reports, detailing the status of the government’s action on
each recommendation.
Limitations:
●
Post-mortem examination of accounts.
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Recommendations are advisory in nature.
●
Not look into technical matters.
●
Not concerned with the questions of policy
in a broader sense.