Contrary to the claims of his minister, Defence Secretary G Mohan Kumar has told a Parliamentary panel that the defence budget of Rs 2,49,099 crore for the current fiscal is not "sufficient" for taking forward the modernisation initiatives.
The Standing Committee on Defence, which submitted its report to the Lok Sabha today, said it is evident that defence expenditure as percentage of central government expenditure has "nose dived" from 15.24 per cent in 2000-2001 to 12.59 per cent in 2016-17.
The report noted the impression given is that the government is not paying attention to providing sufficient allocations to Defence Ministry which is "highly alarming and needs to be rectified".
Soon after the budget, Parrikar had said he was satisfied with the allocation which would take care of all proposed capital expenditure.
However, the report said that "during deliberations, the Defence Secretary admitted before the Committee that the amount allocated is not as per requirement of the Services. The Committee express agreement with the Ministry that this growth in the budgetary allocation is not sufficient and is woefully inadequate for the projects and modernisation of the Services".
The Committee observed that due to reduced budgetary allocation against the projections made by the Services and other Organizations/Departments, many compromises are likely to be made in the current year as well which will affect the operational preparedness of the forces.
While not questioning the "wisdom" of the planners and financial advisors in making and presenting the budget figures, the Committee said it cannot nevertheless help express being wary of the fact that such a "meagre increase in the budget will not in any way, fulfil basic requirements of the forces, let alone the modernisation aspect".
Therefore, the Committee feel it necessary that if additional budget is not provided to the armed forces as per the demand/projection, then the efficiency of spending should be improved for better utilization of available resources, the report said.
