Headlines
At Rs.246,727 crore, India's defence spend hiked 7 percent
New Delhi, Feb 28
At Rs.246,727 crore ($40
billion), India's defence spend was Saturday hiked a modest 7.74
percent, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley declaring that “defence of
every inch of our land is above everything elseâ€.
Presenting the
budget for 2015-16 in the Lok Sabha, Jaitley said the government was
following a policy of transparency and quick decision-making in
procurement to keep the defence forces prepared for any eventuality.
He said the government was pushing for Make in India policy in defence manufacturing to reduce dependence on imports.
The
allocation, which is a mere Rs.17,727 crore over the Rs.229,000 crore
Jaitley had provided in his maiden budget last July, accounts for 13.88
percent of the total government expenditure for 2015-16.
“The
growth of the defence budget has been in spite of lower divisible pool
in view of the 10 percent increase in state allocation (under the 14th
Finance Commission,†Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said in a
statement.
As usual, the 13-lakh-strong Indian Army has
received Rs.1,04,158 crore -- a hike of Rs.5,846 from the revised
estimate of Rs.98,310 crore in 2014-15.
At Rs.23,000 crore, the
Indian Air Force allocation is Rs.2,815 crore higher than that of the
previous fiscal, while the Indian Navy, at Rs.15,525 crore, has seen a
small rise of Rs.1,590 crore.
The capital outlay for the year has
been kept at the Rs.94,588 that had been originally allocated for
20144-15 but was reduced to Rs.81,965 crore in the revised estimates.
“What
is worrisome is that the allocation as a percentage of the GDP has been
steadily going down. This time, it is 1.74 percent of the GDP against
1.75 percent last year and 1.8 percent a year before that,†security
expert C. Uday Bhaskar, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, told
IANS.
A.K. Antony, the long-serving defence minister in the
previous UPA governments, had often been pleading for defence allocation
at three percent of the GDP.
“This is not a good sign and means
that Parrikar has not been able to do much. We were hoping for a
minister who would bite the bullet. Unfortunately, that hasn't
happened,†he added.
“There is a very very deep structural flaw
in the system. We have to decide what India needs and how we should
spend the money. Whether it is the gun or tha man behind the gun,
nothing seems to matter (for the government,†Bhaskar maintained.
As
for the War Memorial and War Museum, for which Jaitley, then also the
defence minister, had allocated Rs.100 crore in his previous budget, a
separate implementation document circulated along with the budget paper,
said the draft cabinet note for this was “under preparationâ€.
There
has also been little progress in implementing the one-rank-one-pay
scheme, for which an additional Rs.1,000 crore had been allocated in the
last budget, with the implementation report saying: “The modalities are
under consideration.â€
“The fact that there has been no allocation on this count is going to send all the wrong signals,†Bhaskar said.
As
for the Technology Development Fund that was meant to provide resources
to public and private sector companies, including SMEs, as well as
academic and scientific institutes to support R&D of defence systems
that enhance the country's cutting-edge technology.
“Consultations with stakeholders have been completed and draft cabinet note is being prepared,†the implementation note said.