Modest hike in Defence Budget, pegged at Rs 2,74,114 cr

New Delhi: With many big ticket deals under various stages of finalisation, the Defence Budget witnessed a hike of Rs over Rs 16,000 crore in the allocation for 2017-18. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allocated Rs 2,74,114 crore for the defence forces, excluding the defence pensions, which took a big portion of the Defence Ministry's budget last year. The hike of Rs 16,114 crore is modest in terms of the defence budgets of the neighbouring countries.

The budget comes at a time when the three services have finalised contracts for multi-billion dollar deals for Rafale fighter jets, Apache, Chinook and Kamov helicopters and the M777 light weight Howitzer guns. The total value of these projects exceed the capital outplay, though the payments will be made in a phased manner. Additionally, over 85 deals worth approximately Rs 1,50,000 crore are in various stages of finalisation and approval. Last year, Mr Jaitley had allocated Rs 2.58 lakh crore for Defence Ministry, an increase of 9.76 per cent over the previous year's figures.

The military pension had zoomed to Rs 82,000 crore mainly due to implementation of the One Rank One Pension scheme. Out of total defence budget, the capital outlay for the three services, for modernisation, stood at Rs 78,586.68 crore last year, which was fully utilised. One reason for modest hike was said to be under utilisation of the capital budget in the past fiscal. The defence budget accounts for nearly 17.2 per cent of the total central government expenditure for the year 2016-17 which was Rs 19.78 lakh crore. India's imports, accounting for 14 per cent of global arms imports, were three times greater than those of China and Pakistan in the period 2011-15. (UNI)