At PAC meet, TMC, BJP spar over allegations against Buch
But BJP lawmaker Nishikant Dubey is learnt to have raised a number of technical points to counter Ray and to oppose any move to summon Buch.
The second meeting of the parliamentary public accounts committee (PAC) saw high drama on Tuesday, after a Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmaker’s demand to summon Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch faced strong resistance from a Bharatiya Janata Party member, underlining the political fissures over the raging controversy.
Former Union minister and Trinamool MP Saugata Ray is learnt to have told panel chairman and Congress leader KC Venugopal that PAC should call Buch in the context of the recent allegations against her and to review the working of Sebi . Ray also wrote a letter to Venugopal on the same issue, said people aware of developments.
But BJP lawmaker Nishikant Dubey is learnt to have raised a number of technical points to counter Ray and to oppose any move to summon Buch.
Dubey maintained that PAC is the oldest committee of Parliament and has its own set of rules. He is also learnt to have said that a suo motu (on its own) review of a regulator can be done by any standing committee and PAC has to abide by the Rule 308 (1) of the Lok Sabha, which deals with appropriation of sums granted by the House.
“There shall be a Committee on Public Accounts for the examination of accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by the House for the expenditure of the Government of India, the annual finance accounts of the Government of India and such other accounts laid before the House as the Committee may think fit,” the rule 308 (1) says.
The BJP lawmaker said there was no government report suggesting any financial malpractice in Sebi and the PAC can’t take reports from any other source, including newspapers, into cognisance.
In the meeting, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India Girish Chandra Murmu was also present, said people aware of developments. Murmu is learnt to have told the panel members that the only body where a performance review was done was the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, but added that it was done during a period when it was established by a resolution by the Government of India to promote, develop and regulate the pension sector in India, and before Parliament turned it into a statutory body through an act in 2013.
Officials of CAG said that the body had the right to do a performance audit of any statutory body such as Sebi or PFRDA “if there is any transaction of even one rupee from the consolidated fund of India.”
Venugopal-led PAC has finalised 161 subjects, including “performance review of regulatory bodies established by Acts of Parliament”, to be taken up for the next five years. Sebi officials and Buch could be summoned as part of the review of regulatory bodies.
The developments come within a month of Hindenburg Research alleging that Sebi’s probe into its January 2023 report of an accounting fraud and manipulation of shares by the Adani group was compromised. The US short-seller had alleged this was because of Buch’s stake in offshore entities that the Adani group had allegedly used to siphon money, apart from impropriety and potential conflict of interest rising from her ownership of the consulting firms. Buch and the Adani group have rejected the allegations repeatedly.
Then last week, the Congress raised further allegations that Buch received ₹16.8 crore from the ICICI group between FY18 and FY24, violating the employee service regulations, code on conflict of interests for board members, and ICICI employees stock option scheme.
ICICI Bank denied paying salary or granting stock options to Buch, who worked at the bank in two stints.
Her three-year tenure as chair ends in March next year.