There is not much for modernisation of armed forces in Union Budget for 2019-2020 for Ministry of Defence with total allocation of Rs 431,010.79 crore, including pension, which accounts for 15.47 % of central government expenditure for this financial year.
The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated Rs 3,18,931 crore for Defence, excluding pension, which will only take care of committed liabilities of the forces and also to check the inflation. The allocation of Rs 3.18 lakh crore has been estimated at around 1.6 per cent of the GDP which, according to experts, is lowest since the 1962 war with China.
For pension, an amount of Rs 1,12,079.57 crore has been provided in the Budget estimate for the current financial year. In 2017-2018, a total expenditure on pension was Rs 9,19,99.58 crores and in 2018-2019,the budget estimates for pension was Rs 1,08,853.30 and revised estimate was Rs 1,06,775.14 crores.
“There is slight increase in Budget for pension requirement is mainly due to increase in number of pensioners, impact of dearness relief,” said a senior Ministry of Defence Officer.
The officer explaining it in details states that out of Rs 3,18,931 crore allocated, Rs 2,10,682.42 crore is for revenue (net) expenditure and Rs 1.08,248 crore for capital expenditure for defence services and the organisations and departments under Ministry of Defence.
The amount of Rs 1,08,284 crore allocated for capital expenditure, includes modernisation related expenditure. He explained that the amount is basically for the committed liabilities made by the Ministry, which included procurement of Rafale fighter jets, artilleries guns and other procurements deals signed earlier.
In a significant development, import of defence equipments not manufactured in India has been exempted from basic custom duty. This will have an impact of augmenting the defence budget by approximately Rs 25,000 crore in account of saving in expenditure on custom duty for next five years.
Interestingly, for Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Rs 1264.62 crore has been allocated and in 2018-1019 a revised estimate was Rs 1256.21 crore. Interestingly, the Rs 293.42 crore has been allocated military farms which have been planned to close down.
For Rashtriya Rifles, Rs 7003.25 crore has been allocated and for National Cadet Corps a total Rs 1607.28 crore has been allocated.
For establishment and expenditure of Indian Army Rs 1,41,501.19 has been kept, for Indian Navy Rs 22,211.71 has been allocated and for Indian Air Force Rs 29601.69 has been kept.
UNCHANGED FROM INTERIM BUDGET
DELAYS LONG-PLANNED MODERNISATION PROGRAMME
- An allocation of Rs 3.18lakh crore has been estimated at around 1.6% of the GDP
- According to experts the allocation of Rs 3.18lakh crore is lowest since the 1962 war with China.
- Rs 1.12lakh crore has been set aside for pension
- Out of the total allocation, Rs 1.08 thousand crore has been set aside for capital outlay to purchase new weapons and military hardware
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