India boosts defence budget by 34 percent

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: India confirmed on Monday a defence budget of Rs 1.42 trillion – a 34 percent increase from last year, as announced in February’s interim budget – with the submission of the general budget for 2009-10 in parliament.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tabled the first budget of the new government with the focus on development and expenditures in line with pre-poll commitments.

Budget estimates provided a total expenditure of Rs 10.2 trillion, with the fiscal deficit projected at 6.8 percent of the gross domestic product.

In the defence budget, a huge sum of Rs 548.24 billion has been allocated to capital outlay to procure state-of-the-art armaments. Moreover, in line with a long-standing demand by defence officials, the finance minister also announced a substantial increase in pensions for ex-servicemen.

Significantly, the External Affairs Ministry’s allocations have been slashed from Rs 68.68 billion to Rs 62.93 billion. However, its discretionary expenditure has been almost doubled from Rs 6.15 billion to Rs 11.78 billion.

Mukherjee also proposed Rs 4.3 billion to upgrade the police force. The minister also sanctioned Rs 22.84 billion to improve management along international borders.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg1_3