| While significant amounts of the defence budget have been lapsing almost each year, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh has decided to set up a Rs 25,000 crore non-lapseable defence fund.
|
| |
| Any shortfall in defence expenditure over the year, in comparison to the budgeted estimates, will be transferred to this non-lapseable defence modernisation fund.
|
| |
| Given the past record in defence funds lapsing, it is believed the fund would have a corpus of around Rs 25,000 crore in four to five years.
|
| |
| Finance Minister Singh said non plan expenditure for 2004-05 had gone up owing to defence. Budget estimates for capital expenditure on defence for 2003-04 (Rs 20,952 crore) were scaled down in the revised estimate to Rs 16,906.32 crore.
|
| |
| However, this has been raised to Rs 22,482.85 crore in the 2004-05 budget, largely on account of a hike in the outlay for the Air Force and the Army.
|
| |
| The IAF's revised estimates (Rs 4219 crore) for the purchase of aircraft and engines, have gone up to Rs 5275 crore in the 04-05 budget.
|
| |
| The Army's revised estimate for expenditure for other equipment, including border sensors and purchase of unmanned surveillance aircraft was Rs 2910 crore.
|
| |
| This has been ramped up to Rs 5594 crore in the current vote on account. The Navy's expenditure in the 2004-05 budget for naval fleet is Rs 3021 crore. This is up from Rs 2910 crore in the revised estimate, suggesting outlay for the Gorshkov payment. |
| |
|
| |
Content Guide
