Budget 2024: Govt to keep spending on border roads after 30% overrun

India's government will maintain increased funding to build roads near its China border after spending 30% more on them this fiscal year than planned, it said on Thursday, citing tension between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The countries have been in a military standoff since July 2020 when at least 24 Indian and Chinese troops were killed in the worst clashes between the two sides in five decades.

India will match the 65 billion rupees ($783.41 million) above the amount scheduled for this year for the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) responsible to build such roads for next year "in the light of the continued threat perception faced at the Indo-China border," the government said in a statement after presenting the budget.

The BRO was initially given 50 billion rupees for the fiscal year 2023/24 that ends on March 31.

The government has allocated 6.215 trillion rupees for defence for next year given the "current geopolitical scenario and with the twin objective of promoting self reliance and exports". This is marginally below the 6.24 trillion rupee spending it estimates in the current year.

Since the 2020 clashes, military and diplomatic talks have helped to ease tensions, but the situation is precarious and opposing troops clashed twice in 2022, even as peace talks were ongoing.

As it intends to modernise its military and nurture a nascent domestic arms industry, the government has given defence 13%, the largest share for any sector, of the 47.65 trillion rupee-budget presented on Thursday.

More than a quarter of the defence budget, 1.72 trillion rupees is for the forces to buy arms and ammunition, but salaries and pensions take the most, at 2.8 trillion rupees for the 14-million strong military.