Legislature is the most effective and real instrument of control, defining the broad objectives of administration and providing the funds necessary to achieve them. Routine activities of bureaucracy are also open to legislative scrutiny through various methods.
The notice of legislative control has been I subject to two different interpretations. It may mean a general political control or a detailed examination of governmental activities.
The general political control implies that the legislature has a right to express j its agreement or disagreement with the way the government intends to orient or has oriented its activities. ! In this model, parliament exercises control through the cabinet.
The second interpretation involves the detailed examination of government activities and ex-post facto scrutiny i.e. before a policy has been implemented.
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It is the second type of control which is worth consideration and true or effective control. The financial system consists of two branches – revenue and expenditure.
(1) As regards revenue, it is expressly laid down by our Constitution (Art 265) that no tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law. The result is that the Executive cannot impose any tax without legislative sanction. If any tax is imposed without legislative authority, the aggrieved person can obtain his relief from the courts of law.
(2) The second principles are the control that vests in the Lok Sabha which has the exclusive control of the money bills.
(3) The demand for grants must come from the government. Neither the Lok Sabha, nor a State Assembly may vote a grant except on a demand for grant from the government.
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(4) As regards expenditure, the pivot of parliamentary control is the Consolidated Fund of India. This is the reservoir into which all the revenues received by the Government of India as well as all loans raised by it are paid and the constitution provides that no moneys shall be appropriated out of the Consolidated Fund of India except in accordance with law (Art 266(3)). This law means an Act of Appropriation passed in conformity with Art. 114.
While an Act of appropriation ensures that there cannot be any expenditure of the public revenues without the sanction of Parliament, Parliament’s control over the expenditure cannot be complete unless it is able to ensure economy in the volume of expenditure. On this point, however, reconciliation has to be made between two conflicting principles, namely, the need for parliamentary control and the responsibility of the Government in power for the administration and its policies.