Budget gives 19% more buying power to defence forces, highest in 15 years

NEW DELHI: The Union Budget made a 19 per cent higher allocation for the country's armed forces to buy new weaponry compared to last year and the highest in the last 15 years. The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today pegged the defence budget at ₹ 4.78 lakh crore, which includes a capital expenditure budget of ₹ 1.35 lakh crore to buy new military hardware.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ms Sitharaman for increasing the defence budget.

"I specially thank PM& FM for increasing the defence budget to 4.78 lakh cr for FY21-22 which includes capital expenditure worth ₹ 1.35 lakh crore. It is nearly19 percent increase in Defence capital expenditure. This is highest ever increase in capital outlay for defence in 15yrs," Mr Singh tweeted.

In last year's budget, the defence forces were given ₹ 20,776 crore additional funds under the capital budget meant for unplanned expenses of the armed forces. It is believed that these funds were used by the three arms of the military to make emergency weapons and ammunition purchases to shore up defences along the Ladakh frontier, where India and China are in the midst of an unprecedented faceoff for nearly a year.

Ms Sitharaman's huge defence budget comes amid forecast that fiscal deficit for fiscal 2021 has been pegged at 9.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and would fall to 6.8 per cent in fiscal 2022.