Defence budget weighed down

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 1

India’s military budget is now literally “weighed down” by salaries and pensions. The defence budget, minus the pensions, was increased to Rs 3,37,553 crore, up from Rs 3,18,931 crore for the present fiscal ending March 31, 2020. This is a meagre 5.8 per cent hike.

The capital allocation used for purchase of new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware like guns and new UAVs is Rs 1,13,626 crore. This means modernisation gets an increase of Rs 10,316 crore over this year’s allocation of Rs 1,03,310 crore.

On the other hand, the budget for pensions has been hiked by Rs 21,742 crore and is now pegged at Rs 1,33,819 crore. This year, a sum of Rs 1,12,077 crore is earmarked for pensions.

The combined budget for operations, salaries, pensions and capital for the next fiscal stands at Rs 4,71,372 crore and it works out to be 15.4 per cent of the country’s entire budget.

The services are literally weighed down by bulging “establishment” costs — euphuism for salaries. The salaries of the three services and the civilians concerned work out to be Rs 1,34,989 crore, which now form 39.99 per cent of the budget. In other words, salaries and pensions take up more money than what is allocated for modernisation.

The MoD is looking at “right-sizing” the forces and also at cutting costs within. The Army has already started the restructuring process.

Key outlays

Rs1,34,989 cr salaries

Rs1,33,819 cr pensions

Rs1,13,626 cr capital