21/09/2019 - Indian Polity

IAS Parliament 5 years

KEY POINTS

What is important for our electorate and the representatives we vote for is that they have an independent, non-partisan source for these hard facts and evidence.

Need for Parliament Budget Office

· This is particularly important for our Parliament, which controls where and how money flows into our government and our country. This body needs to be appointed not based on political allegiance or expediency, but on its expertise in budgetary, fiscal and economic matters.

· This body exists in many countries around the world, going by many names but most commonly as Parliamentary Budget Offices (PBOs).

· These bodies help shape the debate and discourse around the state of the nation’s finances and the fiscal implications of significant proposals. The work done by PBOs naturally ends up in the public sphere.

· When they do, they help drive smarter, more focused debate in the media and with our electorate.

· What distinguishes India’s democracy, besides its diversity of views and opinions wrought by its size, is its ability to evolve and remain dynamic.

· Take an example: the Rafale deal with Dassault Aviation. Part of the controversy resulted from uncertainty regarding the true lifecycle costs of the aircraft bought.

· In 2011, the Canadian PBO released a cost estimate for Canada’s purchase of F-35 jets. This estimate far exceeded the one presented by the Department of National Defence.

· Defence costing, typically the purview of the Defence Ministry, was a completely new area of analysis, information and research that parliamentarians could now access to hold the government to account.

· Besides costing policies and programmes, PBOs provide significant and sometimes the sole source of information on fiscal and economic projections.

· However, without the existence of another data point, generated by an independent, non-partisan office, it is difficult for parliamentarians to ensure that these projections and estimates continue to be reliable enough for them to make decisions on.

· A PBO, or a similar independent fiscal institution, will not solve all these problems but is a relatively cost-efficient way to arrive at a solution.

· The amount of information parliamentarians need to scrutinise in Budget documents has exponentially increased and a PBO would assist parliamentarians in this process of scrutiny.

Rahul 5 years

Pls review

IAS Parliament 5 years

Good attempt. Keep Writing.

musabbir 5 years

Kindly review Sir?Madam . I am writing on my own without reference except the recommendation mentioned at last ,i read somewhere . Thank You Sir/Madam