Fast-track lawmaking: Guillotine on budget debates happen far too often

Parliament’s Budget session for 2004-05 had set an unbecoming precedent: 100% of the Budget of Rs 4.8 trillion was passed without discussion, using the guillotine, a parliamentary procedure to fast-track lawmaking. This was repeated in the 2013-14 Budget session, and then again in the 2018-19 Budget session. In 2019, of Budget heads totalling Rs 27.86 trillion, 80% (worth Rs 22.28 trillion) were guillotined.
 
Each year, the Lok Sabha Business Advisory Committee, which includes leaders of various parties, takes up five of the 52 ministries for discussion. The remaining are voted upon on the last day of the Budget session