Budget 2023: Govt On The Offensive on Defence, Allocation Up About 13% to Rs 5.94 L Cr, Army in Focus

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Budget 2023-24 announced an increase of almost 13 per cent for defence from the previous financial year.

The rise in allocation is higher than last year’s increase (9.62 per cent), hinting at the government’s motive of giving more boost to the defence grid of national security.

Focus areas

The pattern of plans for increase in vehicles, Army aircraft, heavy machines, and decrease in Air Force aircraft purchases for 2023-24 shows that the government is boosting the Army’s capabilities amid tensions with China and Pakistan.

There have been multiple cases in recent months when China tried to change the status quo at the border unilaterally.

According to the Budget document, this year, the government has allocated Rs 5.94 lakh crore for defence, up from Rs 5.25 lakh crore.

The government has also increased the budget for works under border roads development from Rs 4,500 crore to Rs 5,000 crore. Similarly, outlay for construction works (Army) has been hiked from Rs 5,596 crore to Rs 6,789 crore, and allocation for aircraft and aero engines (Army) has more than doubled from Rs 2,070 crore to Rs 5,500 crore.

The budget for Air Force aircraft and aero engines has been slashed from Rs 18,966 crore to 15,722 crore, indicating that no major purchases would be done in this financial year. Also, the allocation for heavy and medium vehicles for the armed forces has sharply increased from Rs 1,817 crore to Rs 3,000 crore.

The Navy has also got a boost as the budget for equipment, land and naval dockyard/projects have been increased massively. According to the Budget document, the Navy will get Rs 9,500 crore for equipment, up from Rs 6,000 crore. Also, dockyard projects will get Rs 6,725 crore, which was Rs 3,842 crore for financial year 2022-23. The government will spend close to Rs 1500 crore on the Navy-land scheme, which was just Rs 17 crore in the previous Budget.

Agnipath

The government has decided to allocate about Rs 4,266 crore for the Agnipath recruitment scheme.

According to the Budget document, the Army has been given Rs 3800 crore, the Navy Rs 300 crore, and Indian Air Force (IAF) Rs 166 crore for the scheme.

Defence budget last year

Last year, the defence budget was 13.31% of the total budget. This included an amount of Rs 1.19 lakh crore for defence pensions. The total defence budget represented an enhancement of Rs 46,970 crore (9.82%) over budget estimates of 2021-22.

“Through enhanced budgetary support over the years, the Government has placed modernisation and infrastructure development of the Armed Forces at the centre stage of the National Security and Defence Planning process. The total allocation under Capital Outlay of the Defence Services has been increased from Rs 86,740 crore in 2013-14 to 1.52 lakh crore in 2022-23. There is an enhancement of 76% over a period of nine years. Further, during this period, the total Defence Budget including Defence Pensions has increased by 107.29%, from Rs 2.53 lakh crore in 2013-14 to Rs 5.25 lakh crore in 2022-23,” the government had said last year after the Budget presentation.

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