Q. With reference to Public Accounts of India, consider the following statements:
1. The expenditures from the Public Account are not required to be approved by the Parliament.
2. The funds under the Public Account does not belong to the Government.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Exp) Option c is the correct answer.
All public money (other than those which are credited to the Consolidated Fund of India) received by or on behalf of the Government of India shall be credited to the Public Account of India. Ex: provident fund deposits.
Statement 1 is correct. The Public Account of India is operated by executive action, that is, the payments from this account can be made without parliamentary appropriation.
Statement 2 is correct. Public Account of India accounts for flows for those transactions where the government is merely acting as a banker. Such payments are mostly in the nature of banking transactions. These funds do not belong to the government. They have to be paid back at some time to their rightful owners. Because of this nature of the fund, expenditures from it are not required to be approved by the Parliament.
