Comments
In a marginal hike, the defence budget was increased to ₹3.37 lakh crore for 2020-21 against last year’s ₹3.18 lakh crore, belying expectations of a significantly enhanced allocation to fast-track long-pending military modernisation.
Out of total allocation, ₹1.13 lakh crore has been set aside for capital outlay to purchase new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware, according to the Union Budget presented in Lok Sabha on Saturday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The revenue expenditure, which includes expenses on payment of salaries and maintenance of establishments, has been pegged at ₹2.09 lakh crore.
The total outlay does not include ₹1.33 lakh crore set aside separately for payment of pensions.
The percentage of the allocation has almost remained static at around 1.5 per cent of the GDP, which, according to experts, is the lowest since the 1962 war with China.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.