India on Thursday allocated Rs2.95 lakh crore for military spending during 2018-19, a modest hike of 7.8% over last year’s budget of Rs2.74 lakh crore. The budget includes a capital outlay of Rs99,563 crore for buying new weapons and systems, up from Rs86,488 crore.
The budget has breached the Rs4 lakh crore-mark if defence pensions (Rs1.08 lakh crore) are factored in. The pension outlay exceeds capital expenditure.
In a departure from a trend of surrendering unspent money, the defence ministry was able to utilise the entire capital outlay in the budget for 2017-18. Last February, the ministry surrendered Rs6,886 crore.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the NDA government had laid emphasis on modernising and enhancing the military’s operational capabilities.“Ensuring adequate budgetary support will be our priority,” he said.
Calling it a reasoned out budget, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman thanked Jaitley for the “financial accommodation” and said the military would “prioritise” its modernisation projects. However, India’s defence spending continues to be on the decline measured against its gross domestic product (GDP). This year it has slipped to a mere 1.57% of the GDP.