CUT MOTION

In democratic political systems, there is a provision of Cut Motion in the House/Parliament (usually it is the opposition but floor might be crossed by members of the House belonging to the government due to presence of inner- party politics). In the US, the budget provisions presented by the government must be passed by the Congress. Only then they can be enacted. Unlike this, in the British parliamentary system though the budget of the government is voted by the House usually this is considered a political document and passed unchanged. India has mixed provisions of voting on the budget after discussion in both the Houses. There are different constitutional provisions by which the Parliament starts discussion to reduce the demands, grants, etc. proposed by the government in the Budget59—

(i) Token Cut: This motion intends to ‘reduce the demand by Rs. 100’. Such a motion is moved in order to express a specific grievance which is within the sphere of the responsibility of the Government of India—the discussion remains confined to the particular grievance specified in the motion.

(ii) Economy Cut: This motion intends to ‘reduce the demand by a specified amount’ representing the economy (in expenditure) that can be affected. Such specified amount may be either lump sum reduction in the demand or omission or reduction of an item in the demnd—the discussion remains confined to the matter in which the economy can be affected.

(iii) Disapproval of Policy Cut: This motion intends to ‘reduce the demand to Re. 1’. This represents disapproval of the policy underlying the demand—the discussion remains confined to the particular policy and is open to members to advocate an alternate policy.

(iv) Guillotine is the process in which the Speaker puts all the outstanding demands made by the Budget directly to vote in the House—ending further discussions (intended to cut short the discussion on the Budget). Through this, the Speaker may put the whole Budegt to vote (i.e., allowing ‘no discussion’ on the Budget by the House). In recent years, this route was taken time and again by the Government of India, to avoid the aggressive mood of the Opposition.

Though, this is a short route to get the Budget passed by the House (avoiding criticism by the opposition benches), it may turn out to be very dangerous —as the voting process may take the form of ‘no confidence motion’ and the government may be routed out of power. But, till date, Guillotines never resulted into routing a government out of power in India (as India follows the British Model of Parliamentary system).