No mention of defence outlay in Arun Jaitley’s Union Budget

Finance minister Arun Jaitley made no mention of India’s defence allocation for 2016-17 in his Union Budget speech on Monday, raising curiosity over why the country’s military spending was not revealed.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley made no mention of India’s defence allocation for 2016-17 in his Union Budget speech on Monday, raising curiosity over why the country’s military spending was not revealed.

The money allocated for the military’s modernisation in 2016-17 is expected to be less than what it was last year, with defence pensions gobbling up a large chunk of the budget. (PTI File Photo)

Figures on military spending have traditionally found mention in the budget speech. Strategic affairs expert Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd) said: “I have been tracking the budget for more than 17 years and this is the first time there’s no word on defence allocation.”

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The money allocated for the military’s modernisation in 2016-17 is expected to be less than what it was last year, with defence pensions gobbling up a large chunk of the budget.

Jaitley had last year announced an outlay of Rs 2,46,727 crore for 2015-16, an increase of 7.7% over the previous year’s budgetary estimates and 10.95% if calculated against revised estimates.

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India’s defence budget had slipped to 1.74% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015-16, compared to 1.78% the year before. Experts believe India’s military spending should be around 3% of the GDP to counter China’s rapidly growing military might. India’s military spending stood at 13.88% of total government expenditure in 2015-16.