Public Accounts Committee (India)

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Public Accounts Committee

Financial Standing Committee
17th Lok Sabha
Founded	1921; 103 years ago (1921) (pre-independence) 1950; 74 years ago (1950) (post-independence)
Country	India
Leadership
Chairperson	K.C.VENUGOPAL
Chairperson party	Indian National Congress
Appointer	Lok sabha Speaker
Structure
Seats	22 Lok Sabha : 15 Rajya Sabha : 7
Political Parties	BJP (12)   INC (2)   JD(U) (1)   YSRCP (2)   BJD (2)   BSP (1)   AIADMK (1)   Shiv Sena (1)
Election criteria	The members are elected every year from amongst its members of respective houses according to the principle of proportional representation.
Tenure	1 Year
Jurisdiction
Purpose	Auditing the revenue and the expenditure of the Government of India Examine the audit report of Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG)
Sub-committees
Non Compliance in timely submission of Action Taken Notes(ATN) on the non-selected audit paragraphs & excess expenditure Direct and Indirect Taxes Implementation of Recommendations of PAC Railways
Rules & Procedure
Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha 2014
Applicable rules	Rule 308 & 309 (page 112 - 113)

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a committee of selected members of parliament, constituted by the Parliament of India, for the purpose of auditing the revenue and the expenditure of the Government of India. They check that parliament exercises over the executive stems from the basic principle that parliament embodies the will of the people. This committee along with the Estimates committee (EC) and Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) are the three financial standing committees of the Parliament of India.

It serves as a check on the government especially with respect to its expenditure bill and its primary function is to examine the audit report of Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) after it is laid in the Parliament. C&AG assists the committee during the course of investigation. None of its members are allowed to be ministers in the government. The main function of the committee is to ascertain whether the money granted by parliament has been spent by government within the scope of the demand.

The Public Accounts Committee consists of not more than twenty-two members, fifteen elected by Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament, and not more than seven members of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament. The members are elected every year from amongst its members of respective houses according to the principle of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. The chairperson is appointed by the Lok Sabha speaker. The term of office of the members is one year.

At present, the 18th Lok Sabha has Rahul Gandhi as leader of opposition,^[1] and Indian National Congress (INC) being largest opposition party has gotten the responsibility of heading the PAC. The current PAC is headed by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury since July, 2019 after Mallikarjun Kharge, who was leader of INC in the Lok Sabha. He was re-appointed to a second term in May 2018.^[2]