NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India on Wednesday proposed a defense budget of 5.94 trillion rupees ($72.6 billion) for the fiscal year 2023-24.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated her Rs 1.63 trillion for defense investment. This includes new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware, as he totals nearly $550 billion in federal spending from 2023 to 2024 in his annual budget.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated her Rs 1.63 trillion for defense investment. This includes new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware, as he totals nearly $550 billion in federal spending from 2023 to 2024 in his annual budget.
She said Rs 2.77 trillion will be spent on military salaries and benefits in 2023-24 and Rs 1.38 trillion will be spent on veterans’ pensions and various other items.
Sitharaman also revised the defense budget for the current fiscal year ending March to her Rs 5.85 trillion from her previous estimate of Rs 5.25 trillion.
In recent years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized his government’s commitment to boosting domestic manufacturing to feed the forces stationed at the two disputed borders, while increasing spending on modernizing the military. I’m here. “The government has tried to allocate sufficient funds to the defense forces while balancing other priorities in the pre-election budget,” he said, adding that tensions with China have risen along the disputed border. He pointed out that India needs more money.
India’s total defense budget, estimated at about 2% of GDP, is still lower than China’s 1.45 trillion yuan ($230 billion) allocation for 2022.
“The overall increase in the military’s budget is as expected, but likely less than what they requested to bolster operational capabilities,” said Amit Kaushish, a former Pentagon acquisition financial adviser.
According to the latest budget document, India will spend about 242 billion rupees (US$3 billion) on building a naval fleet and he plans to spend 571.4 billion rupees (US$7 billion) on procuring an air force, including more aircraft.
The South Asian giant employs 1.38 million of his men in its army, many of which are stationed on the borders of nuclear rivals China and Pakistan. The defense budget allocation fell short of the military’s expectations, but Behera said it is likely to increase as the economy recovers from two years of pandemic containment.
India and China share her 3,500-kilometer border that has been disputed since the 1950s. In 1962, the two countries went to war over the issue.
At least 24 soldiers were killed when the Asian giant’s armies clashed in Ladakh in the Western Himalayas in 2020, but tensions eased after military and diplomatic talks.
A new clash broke out in the eastern Himalayas last December, but no deaths were reported.
