Budget documents show that revised capital budget for this fiscal is Rs 71,700 crore. But it is not clear whether the Defence Ministry was unable to spend the remaining amount (Rs 6,886 crore) or whether any savings were done.
The 10 per cent increase in the capital outlay for modernisation programmes in the defence forces might not be sufficient to keep pace with changing dynamics of military preparedness, experts feel.
Even though the capital outlay for the three defence services for the purchase of new equipment, weapons, aircraft, warships and other military vehicles stood at Rs 86,488 crore for 2016-17 as compared to Rs 78,586 crore for this fiscal, the overall defence budget saw an increase of 6.2 per cent for the next fiscal at Rs 2.74 lakh crore from the current Rs 2.58 lakh crore.
Budget documents show that revised capital budget for this fiscal is Rs 71,700 crore. But it is not clear whether the Defence Ministry was unable to spend the remaining amount (Rs 6,886 crore) or whether any savings were done.
Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retired) from the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) says the nominal increase in the defence budget is barely adequate to allow for domestic inflation.
“It is insufficient to cater for the increase in pay and allowances due to the implementation of the award of the Seventh Pay Commission,” he said.
Kanwal said that this expenditure will add to the revenue budget resulting in consequent decrease in the capital budget, leading to further stagnation in military modernisation.
A similar view was expressed by members from the defence industry who felt that with depreciating rupee and the imposition of customs duty on all defence imports, this increase may not be enoght to meet the modernisation requirements. The government maintained the allocation can be increased if required at any point of time.
The money allocated for defence pensions was Rs 85,737 crore as compared to revised estimate of Rs 85,624 crore this fiscal.
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