Govt rubbishes concerns about fund crunch crippling military
The government has brushed aside concerns about a looming financial crisis crippling India’s combat capabilities, saying “things are happening in the defence ministry” and “resources are adequate” to modernise the armed forces.
Speaking to journalists on the opening day of DefExpo-2018 on Wednesday, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the NDA government’s focus was on prioritising weapon purchases that had not progressed during the last 10 to 20 years and ensuring maximum utilsation of funds.
She was responding to a Hindustan Times query on a recent parliamentary report in which the army had painted a grim picture of how poor budgetary outlay was coming in the way of emergency purchases, procuring critical ammunition, and undertaking strategic road projects along the Chinese border.
“The parliamentary standing committee on defence has said that (fund crunch) and it has also said a lot more. I wish anyone present here has read the entire report. Read the report in full to know what is really happening in MoD,” the minister said.
She said the ministry had just signed a ~639-crore contract with an Indian firm for supplying 1.86 lakh bullet proof jackets to the army, and progress on that project wasn’t made after the panel tabled its report in Parliament in March. The panel looks at the defence ministry’s functioning and consists of MPs from various political parties.
“I want to remove doubts in anyone’s mind that nothing is happening in the ministry.”
The army had told the panel that even as neighbouring China and Pakistan were modernising their militaries at a lightning pace, lack of resources was hurting the force at a time it should be prepared for a two-front war.
Army vice chief Lieutenant General Sarath Chand told the panel that Budget 2018-19 had dashed the army’s hopes and overall shortage under the capital head stood at ~12,296 crore.
Responding to question on the military’s budget and how it has been on the decline measured against India’s gross domestic product, defence secretary Sanjay Mitra said, “Let me assure you resources are adequate at this point of time. Nearly 33% of the government’s capital expenditure is reserved for defence.”
In February, India allocated ~2.95 lakh crore for military spending during 2018-19, a modest hike of 7.8% over last year’s budget of ~2.74 lakh crore. The budget includes a capital outlay of ~99,563 crore for buying new weapons and systems, up from ~86,488 crore. The budget breached the ~4 lakh crore-mark factoring in defence pensions (~1.08 lakh crore). The pension outlay exceeds capital expenditure. The budget has slipped to a mere 1.57% of the GDP this year.
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