Keeping up the tempo to modernise the armed forces, the government on Friday increased its defence spending by some 18 per cent and hiked the budget for capital acquisition by 15 per cent.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee earmarked Rs.1,93,407 crore for Defence — which is 1.9 per cent of the GDP — in the budget proposals.
The figure accounts for 12.97 per cent of the total expenditure by the government.
While the country is expected to spend over Rs.50,000 crore each year towards modernisation of the armed forces, the military spending has hovered between 1.97 to 2.4 per cent of the GDP over the last few years.
The allocation represents a growth of 17.63 per cent over the budget estimate of Rs.1,64,415 crore for 2011-12 and a 13.15 per-cent growth over the revised estimate of Rs.1,70,937 crore for the current financial year that ends this month.
Considering that the government hopes to finalise the multi-billion-dollar deal to procure the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft this year among other acquisitions, the budget proposal has allocated Rs.79,578 crore towards capital expenditure.
This signifies a jump of 15 per cent over the budget estimate of Rs. 69,199 crore for 2011-12. However, in reality some Rs.3,000 crore of this fund could not be spent amid reports of revenue-crunch leading to an across-the-board slash in the budget by the government.
The break-up of the allocation shows that the Army gets Rs.78,114.36 crore, against the budget estimate of Rs.64,251.55 crore in 2011-12 and Rs.71,479.27 crore under the revised estimate.
The allocation for the Navy is at Rs.12,548.02 crore, which compares well with the budget estimate of Rs.10,859.66 crore, but is not so favourable when juxtaposed with the revised estimate of Rs.12,146.93 crore.
The Air Force is being allocated Rs.17,705.81 crore, which is above the Rs. 16.137.38 crore allocation under the revised estimate for 2011-12, against Rs.15,927.95 crore under the budget estimate.
With the government aiming to increase the indigenous content in defence procurement, despite allocation for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), there is a steady decline in utilisation for funds for the job.
If in 2010-11, the organisation spent Rs.1,218.25 crore, in the revised estimate for 2011-12 it spent Rs. 991.25 crore despite the budget estimate allocating Rs.1,116 crore under the head. Overall, its budget has been increased to Rs.5,995.56 crore, against Rs.5,386.01 crore under the revised estimate for 2011-12.
Keywords: Union Budget 2012-13, Defence allocation
Defence allocation at 1.9 percent of the GDP – is well below the safe level of 3 percent. Our low provisions being almost one third that of China’s should be cause of much concern - when even the visits of our officials to our own territories is being challenged-reflecting the long shadow of coming events? Instability in our neighborhood will need a stronger India to contain any misadventure and nibbling of our lands. The long stalled modernization must commence by importing only urgently needed items like artillery pieces and newer generation aircraft-instead of being penny-wise on old generation aircraft which may need geriatric care by way of upgrades soon.But our mantra for modernization must be Swadeshi- even transfer of technology though offset may not help. The government must reconsider higher allocations especially for modernization by indigenous effort- lead by DRDO inclusive of public / private sectors & talent from org like Institute of Defence Scientists & Technologist.
Nation's security should have topmost importance and keeping the pace of Modernisation this allocation is less than sufficient. By considering our neighbourhood we are playing the unsuccessdul catching game .
China's defence spending surpassed $100 billion and pace of modernisation of arms , ammunication ,equipments and infrastructurer is worrying for us and to contain two adversaries defence spend is worth doing thing .Still we are engulfed with bureaucrasy ,corruption and delays in procurement of vital equipments like howitzers so India really needs some serious attempt to rectify it .
how could we bring ourself on the par of world tax regime to attract more and more investment .We have to reduce indirect tax and increase tax slab to bring DTC and GST.
This important spending, but please do not ignore health and education, which are in dire need of improved implementation and vastly increased funding!
Hike in defence budget is a need of today as china is preparing himself for dominance in area .
How the politicians and bureaucrats are not worrying about the urgent needs of Health and Educational sector?. The other day, Jairam Ramesh was raising his concern on open defecation villages in India that are close to 2.25 Lakh and this unhygienic practice leads health issues mainly to women folks. How the voice of Jairam Ramesh is unheard by his cabinet colleague, the Finance minster, while allocating 17% increase in fund for Defence but neglecting the Health sector. People are already lost the faith in politicians and the government and now this budget implications are not encouraging for them
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