India on Saturday set aside Rs 3.37 lakh crore for military spending in its budget for 2020-21, an increase of barely 6% over last year’s budget estimates of Rs 3.18 lakh crore.
This year’s budget (minus defence pensions) includes Rs 1.13 lakh crore under the capital head for modernization, which is only Rs 10,340 crore more than the allocation in last year’s budget estimates. Lack of adequate funds could hit the military’s modernization programmes, experts said.
“At first reading, the allocation under the capital head seems to be insufficient considering that large capability voids need to be filled,” said Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retd), additional director general, Centre for Air Power Studies.
If the defence spending allocated for 2020-21 is calculated against last year’s revised estimates of Rs 3.31 lakh crore, the increase is not even 2%. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech in Parliament on Saturday made no mention of defence except that national security was a top priority.
The military was hoping for healthy increase in defence funding as several modernization programmes have to be implemented — ranging from artillery guns and helicopters to fighters and submarines. The armed forces will have to prioritise their purchases given that the available resources are inadequate, said a senior army official who did not want to be named. This year’s budget (excluding pensions) is a mere 1.5% of the country’s gross domestic product.
If defence pensions in the budget are taken into account, the defence outlay for 2021 stands at Rs 4.71 lakh crore compared to Rs 4.3 lakh crore in last year’s budget estimates and Rs 4.48 lakh crore in last year’s revised estimates.
A parliamentary panel has asked the defence ministry to “strongly press” for additional funds from the finance ministry to enable the military to buy new equipment and also pay for weapons and systems it has already contracted to purchase, at a time when the armed forces projected a combined requirement of almost Rs 1 lakh crore more under the capital head for 2019-20.