Low defence budget may affect security: Parl panel

NEW DELHI: A low defence budget may have adverse implications on the country’s security, a parliamentary panel has warned the government ahead of the budget for fiscal 2016-17 set to be presented in Lok Sabha on Monday.

The parliamentary standing committee on defence, headed by Major General B.C. Khanduri (retired), a former minister, has questioned the finance ministry for delaying its response to a defence ministry letter suggesting a minimum percentage be fixed for defence expenditure, compared to the total government expenditure.

The committee asked the defence ministry to provide the details of the communication with the finance ministry.

The committee had, in its recommendations, pointed out that although defence expenditure has been increasing over the years, the percentage increase since 2000-01 has not been consistent.

The ministry’s response to the committee however reveals that higher rate of growth during 200809 and 2009-10 was mainly due to the payment of arrears after implementing the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

The committee also pointed out that the although the defence budget is increasing every year in numerical terms, in comparison to overall budget, it has consistently been declining.

In 2011-12, the defence expenditure accounted for 13.10% of the total budge, further got reduced to 12.89% in 2012-13 and to 12.76% in 2013-14, according to the panel.