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Tuesday, February 11, 2025 | 10:09 PM ISTEN Hindi

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Looking beyond Budget to fund defence: Need for ambitious restructuring

The government cannot entirely overlook the need to evaluate and determine expenditure based on the military threats and capabilities of China and Pakistan

Defence equipments, weapons, India weapons, Army, weapon
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Harsh V PantKartik Bommakanti

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The second Budget of the Modi government’s third term allocated ₹6.81 trillion to defence, marking a 9.5 per cent increase from the ₹6.21 trillion allocated in the July 2024-25 Budget. However, with an allocation of  ₹4.88 trillion, revenue expenditure—covering salaries, pensions, maintenance, repairs, and infrastructure—constitutes 71.75 per cent of the total defence budget.
 
The impact of the latest Budget indicates that the pension bill, which is covered under the head of revenue expenditure, witnessed a 13.8 per cent increase from ₹1.41 trillion in 2024-25 to ₹1.60 trillion in 2025-26. Pensions have generally exceeded 20 per cent or more of the
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper

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