Strict guidelines to check the wastage of taxpayers' money on 'study tours' undertaken by the members of parliamentary committees will soon come into place.

The guidelines will come after the final round of consultations between the presiding officers of both the Houses.

"The Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairman will meet this month to finalise the guidelines," Parliament sources said.

Sources said Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has already had discussions with the leaders of the ruling and opposition parties in the House, Pranab Mukherjee and Lal Kishenchand Advani, respectively.

The Lok Sabha has 16 department-related standing committees and the Rajya Sabha has eight.

Each has 30 members, and under the new guidelines, the committees have been asked to undertake tours only when absolutely necessary. In cases where they could summon an officer or two to Delhi instead, they would be asked to do so.

The rules would also ensure that only sub-committees, and not entire committees, go on tour, the sources said. However, if the need for all committee members to undertake a tour arose, they should either hire an air-conditioned coach or share the cars allotted to them instead of having a car each, the sources said.

This would help in cutting down expenditure, the sources said. "When the Speaker himself follows rules strictly, why not the members," they said.