The Defence Ministry has ordered a strict austerity drive, curtailing operational and training expenditure of the three wings of the armed forces as well as clamping down on foreign and domestic travel of senior officials.
The directive was issued recently to the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the DG of Acquisition and other departments by a senior official of the Ministry with the approval of Defence Minister A.K. Antony. It referred to the difficult fiscal situation prevailing in the country and stressed on need to ensure “optimal” deployment of available funds in an economical manner.
The direction came after Finance Minister P. Chidambaram reiterated his commitment in Parliament during the just-concluded Monsoon session to meeting a tough fiscal deficit target for the current financial year ending next March.
Armed forces should also avoid transfers for the current year, the Ministry order said. But what is likely to hurt the armed forces most is the directive to curtail their training and operational expenditure and avoid making advances to defence public sector units during the current fiscal.
