Defence minister approves new framework to rationalise revenue procurement

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved a new framework to streamline, simplify and rationalise the revenue procurement process for the military.

The Defence Procurement Manual (DPM) 2025 also aims to foster jointness among the three services and help in maintaining the highest level of military preparedness through expeditious decision making process for revenue procurement, an official readout said on Sunday.

"It (DPM) will ensure timely availability of requisite resources to the armed forces and at appropriate cost," it said.

Defence Minister Singh approved the DPM that will "further streamline, simplify, enable and rationalise the revenue procurement process in the Ministry of Defence and cater to the emerging requirements of the armed forces in the era of modern warfare", it said.

The ministry said ease of doing business has been further strengthened in the document, which aims to boost Aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) in defence manufacturing and technology.

"The objective is to utilise the potential, expertise, and capability of the domestic market in defence sector by ensuring active participation of private players, MSMEs, start-ups, etc., along with the well-established Defence Public Sector Undertakings," it said in a statement.

Procurement of goods and services by the defence services and of other organisations under the defence ministry is regulated by the DPM, which was last promulgated in 2009.

The new manual was under revision in the ministry in consultation with the armed forces and other stakeholders.

"The DPM lays down the guiding principles and provisions for all revenue procurements in the ministry valuing around Rs 1 lakh crore for the current financial year," the ministry said.

"There has been a pressing need for this manual to be aligned with latest developments in the field of public procurement duly ensuring the use of technology in procurement with utmost fairness, transparency, and accountability," it said.