NEWTIME=`date |awk '{print $4}'|awk -F: '{print $1$2}'` <-This is working fine 
echo $NEWTIME
2047
# VAR1=`echo $NEWTIME|cut -c1-2` <- here it is failing
echo $VAR1
20
# VAR2=`echo $NEWTIME|cut -c3-4` <- here it is failing
# echo $VAR2
47