The Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) is a committee of selected
members of parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
, constituted by the
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...
, for the purpose of examining the reports and accounts of the
public sector undertakings
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
(PSUs) as specified in the fourth schedule of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha. This committee along with the
Public Accounts committee (PAC) and the
Estimates committee (EC) are the three
financial standing committees of the
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...
.
The committee consists of twenty-two members, fifteen elected by
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...
, the
lower house
A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...
of the Parliament, and not more than seven members of
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
, the
upper house
An upper house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smalle ...
of the Parliament. The members are elected every year from amongst its members of respective houses according to the principle of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
by means of
single transferable vote
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...
. The chairperson is appointed by the
Lok Sabha speaker. The term of office of the members is one year. A minister is not eligible to become a member of the committee. If a member after his election to the committee becomes a Minister, he ceases to be a member from the date of such appointment.
History
The first proposal for a separate committee had been raised by
Lanka Sundaram
Lanka Sundaram (Telugu: లంక సుందరం) (1 January 1905 – 8 January 1967) was an Indian politician and an expert in international law.
Life
He was born in Chodavaram in Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. He did his primary ...
in 1953, stating the inadequacies
Public Accounts committee (PAC) and the
Estimates committee (EC) with respect to public undertakings, but the then finance minister did not relent to that idea. In May 1956.
Ashok Mehta
Ashok Mehta (1947 – 15 August 2012) was a noted national film award-winning Indian film cinematographer, known for films such as '' Bandit Queen'' (1994), '' 36 Chowringhee Lane'' (1981) and ''Utsav'' (1984). He won the National Film Award f ...
also proposed that there should be a separate committee for public undertakings, however the then finance minister held the view that the PAC and the EC were sufficient to handle the work load. By 1957, the government had agreed to form a standing sub-committee of the EC on public undertakings. In 1958, the congress formed the
V. K. Krishna Menon
Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon (3 May 1896 – 6 October 1974) was an Indian academic, politician, and non-career diplomat. He was described by some as the second most powerful man in India, after the first Prime Minister of India, Jawa ...
committee. which put forward a number of recommendations intended to reconcile the accountability of public undertakings to parliament while keeping their autonomy on one hand and also ensuring efficiency on the other.
In the September 1963, the then Minister of Commerce and Industry
Nityanand Kanungo
Nityanand Kanungo was one of India's prominent politicians from the state of Odisha, who held successive high-profile portfolios in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet.
Nityanand Kanungo was born in Cuttack on 4 May 1900 and was educated ...
, put forward a motion in the Lok Sabha proposing the formation of a separate Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings. In pursuance of this motion the Committee on Public Undertakings was formed with effect from May 1, 1964.
Scope and Working
The functions of the Committee on Public Undertakings are
* To examine the reports and accounts of public undertakings specified in the fourth Schedule to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.
* To examine the reports, if any, of the
Comptroller and Auditor General of India
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is the supreme audit institution of India, established under Article 148 of the Constitution of India. They are empowered to audit all receipts and expenditure of the Government of India and the S ...
on the Public Undertakings.
* To examine, in the context of the autonomy and efficiency of the Public Undertakings whether the affairs of the Public Undertakings are being managed in accordance with sound business principles and prudent commercial practices.
The committee from time to time takes up for examination as such any PSU or subjects related to them as they may deem fit and which are within their terms of reference. The dep or Undertaking concerned is asked to furnish necessary material relating to those subjects for information of the Members of the Committee. The Committee may from time to time appoint one or more Study Groups for carrying out detailed examination of various subjects.
Current composition
Keys: = 22 members
List of Public Undertakings
The scope of COPU is limited to the undertakings specified in the fourth Schedule to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha. They are as follows :
Probes in recent years
BSNL Salary ratio (2014)
The Committee on Public Undertakings noted in its report: "''The staff cost was about Rs.13,406 crore in 2011-12, that is almost 50 per cent of its revenue, which is abnormally on the higher side as compared to private companies whose expenditure is stated to be in the range of 5-10 per cent''."
ONGC Videsh Ltd (2014)
Based on the performance audit done by C&AG presented in report no. 28 for the year 2010-11, the COPU had the following findings -"''Due to unrealistic estimation of reserves/production, OVL has suffered a huge loss of Rs.1182.14 crore during the period 2008-09 and 2009-10. Since OVL did not chose to farm-out part of its stake to a local partner, the entire loss has been borne out by it''" Following up in August 2015, COPU stated - "''Except reiterating its earlier reply OVL has not offered any justification for its ill-conceived decision not to farm-out part of its stake in IEC to local Russian firms/ entities and its unrealistic estimation of oil reserves and production targets''"
Chairpersons
Chairpersons of the committee till date
Longest serving chairpersons of COPU
Reports Published
The committee since inception has presented 604 reports till date. Of these, 301 are original Reports, and 303 are reports on action taken by the Government on the original reports of the committee. Out of 301 original reports, 37 are in the nature of horizontal studies on various aspects of working of the public undertakings.
See also
*
17th Lok Sabha
The 17th Lok Sabha was formed by the members elected in the 2019 Indian general election. Elections, all across India, were conducted in seven phases from 11 April 2019 to 19 May 2019 by the Election Commission of India. Counting started offi ...
*
Estimates Committee
*
Public Accounts Committee (India) 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 exercise ...
*
Standing Committee on Defence (India)
*
Standing Committee on Finance
*
List of Indian parliamentary committees
The Parliamentary committees are established to study and deal with various matters that cannot be directly handled by the legislature due to their volume. They also monitor the functioning of the executive branch.
The Parliamentary committees ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha 2014National Highway Authority of India report - Aug 2018BSNL report - Apr 2014ONGC Videsh Limited report - Feb 2014
Committees of the Parliament of India