PAC heads into another row, may take up report at odds with govt

Members from the BJP dominate the PAC, which is headed by senior Congress leader K V Thomas. If the PAC takes up the CAG report on LPG subsidy issue, it will be the first major scrutiny of any Modi government scheme by Parliament’s audit watchdog.

Soon after the CAG report had come into media glare, some non-BJP members of the PAC had approached the chairman demanding that the panel take it up.

“Once the CAG report is before Parliament, the PAC can take it up. Members have suggested to me that the subject be examined by the PAC. They were of the view that it is a matter of public importance. We will decide the issue at our next meeting,” Thomas told The Indian Express.

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The PAC can take up any issue even suo motu, as happened in the case of the non-performing assets of public sector banks. No report, however, can be submitted by the PAC unless there is consensus on it.

The CAG report concludes that the amount saved from people giving up LPG subsidy has been less than Rs 2,000 crore, which runs contrary to the government’s claims of having saved around Rs 22,000 crore in 2014-15 and 2015-16 from its Give It Up scheme that asks consumers who can afford to do so to give up their subsidies, as well as from direct bank transfers of the subsidy.

The CAG report attributes the huge savings instead to the dramatic fall in prices of LPG that India imports.

The audit watchdog also points out problems in DBT concerning the LPG scheme.

Following a report in The Hindu talking of the CAG findings, the Centre had issued a statement saying it had managed to save Rs 21,000 crore in two years through the DBT, by eliminating fake/ duplicate/ ghost cooking gas LPG connections.

Earlier, on July 12, sparks had flown at a PAC meeting when BJP members had insisted that a party leader should head the sub-committee on defence, which will examine the CAG report on the contentious Agusta Westland issue. However, Thomas had appointed Congress member Shantaram Naik as its convenor, arguing that it was the PAC chairman’s prerogative to decide sub-committees.

BJP MPs are planning to write to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on the matter. During the UPA government’s tenure too, the PAC headed by BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi had run into controversy when he had pushed a controversial report on the 2G scam amidst stiff opposition from Congress members in 2010.

The current 22-member PAC has 15 Lok Sabha MPs and seven from the Rajya Sabha. Nine of these members are from the BJP, four from the Congress, two from the Trinamool Congress and one each from the BJD, Shiv Sena, Shiromani Akali Dal, AIADMK, Samajwadi Party and Nagaland People’s Front. One of the members is a nominated MP.