Senior military officers told the parliamentary standing committee on defence that a marginal increase in the defence budget barely accounts for inflation, without helping address the glaring imbalance between cutting-edge weaponry and old equipment in the Indian armed forces.
A modern military should have 30% of its weaponry and equipment in the state-of-the-art technology category, 40% in current category and 30% in vintage category. But the Indian Army has been allotted only 8% (state-of-the-art), 24% (current) and 68% (vintage) weaponry mix.
Army vice-chief Lt-General Sarath Chand told the parliamentary committee on defence, “The 2018-2019 budget has dashed our hopes. The marginal increase barely accounts for inflation and does not even cater for taxes.”
Allocated a mere Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation, the Army does not have enough funds to pay instalments worth Rs 29,033 crore for 125 ongoing schemes and deals inked earlier as well as emergency procurements of ammunition made in the aftermath of the Uri terror attack and surgical strikes in 2016 to ensure reserves for 10 days of intensive war-fighting.
Lt-General Chand added, “We, in the Army, also identified as many as 25 projects for the `Make in India’ policy. However, there is no adequate budget to support this. As a result, many of these may end up foreclosed.”
