India mulls putting cap on extravagant weddings

Pricey weddings may soon be a thing of the past in India, if the country's parliament approves a new bill.

The bill, called The Marriages (Compulsory Registration and Prevention of Wasteful Expenditure) Bill, not only aims at putting a cap on the number of guests and dishes served to avoid waste, but also proposes a "tax" on the most extravagant newlyweds.

It says that anyone spending over 500,000 Indian rupees (7,500 U.S. dollars) on their wedding function will have to contribute 10 percent of the overall cost to poorer brides to help them pay for their marriages.

In November last year, the five-day extravagant wedding of mining baron and former Minister G. Janardhana Reddy's daughter Brahmani triggered huge outrage in India as people faced difficulties in the wake of demonitization of currency notes of higher denominations.

Congress lawmaker Ranjeet Rajan, who has introduced the private members bill in Lok Sabha (the Lower House of Parliament), told the media, "The purpose of the bill is to prohibit extravagant and wasteful expenditure on marriages and to enforce simpler solemnization."

"These days, marriages are more about showing off your wealth and as a result, poor families are under tremendous social pressure to spend more. This is needed to be checked as it is not good for society at large," she added.

The bill is likely to be taken up by the Lok Sabha in the next session. If passed, the bill will go to the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House) for its approval, and then straight to the president who will sign it into law. Endit