Defence Budget 2022: Thrust on Aatmanirbhar Bharat

Defence Budget 2022-23 has focused on the modernisation of Indian armed forces with thrust on the government's ambition 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'.

Anish Kumar

New Delhi, First Published Feb 1, 2022, 5:30 PM IST

Defence Budget 2022-23 has focused on the modernisation of Indian armed forces with thrust on the government's ambitious 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'. The capital outlay for 2022-23 has been scaled up by 12 per cent to over Rs 1.52 lakh crore as compared to Rs 1.35 lakh crore Budget Estimate.

However, the last year’s revised estimate stands at over Rs 1.38 lakh crore for capital expenditure. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who presented her fourth Budget on Tuesday in Parliament earmarked 68 per cent of capital procurement of Rs 1.52 lakh crore for the domestic industry in 2022-23.

Experts are of the opinion that the modernisation plan of the armed forces would gain pace this time since the funds have been made available and also the Covid situation are normalising worldwide.

Among the three Services, the Indian Navy utilised all of its funds allocated to them, followed by the Indian Air Force while the Indian Army returned the amount it was given due to non-utilisation.

It must be noted that the capital outlay means setting aside funds for capital expenditure that include the purchase of defence equipment, weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware.

Let’s know how much money the three Services received this year and the previous year.

Indian Army

For the modernisation process, the government allocated Rs 36,482 crore in the 2021-22 Budget Estimate, but it could not able to spend the fund and returned around Rs 11,105 crore.

On being asked about the non-utilisation of allocated funds, a senior official said that the Covid pandemic was one of the reasons for it. Since it could not use the full amount last year, its share of allocation has been reduced to Rs 32,015 crore from Rs 36,482 crore.

Indian Navy

Among all three forces, the Indian Navy is the only service that has been able to spend more than what it had got. In the 2021-22 Budget, the maritime force had received Rs 33, 253.55 crore and it managed to spend Rs 46,021.54 crore last year.

This year, the finance minister gave Rs 47,591 crore into its kitty to acquire state-of-the-art weaponry systems.

Indian Air Force

The IAF spent slightly lesser than what it had. Last year, it was given Rs 53, 214.77 crores and bought military weaponry systems worth Rs 51, 830.93 crores. Sitharaman allocated Rs 55,586.65 crore this time.

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The additional expenses incurred by the Indian Navy and Indian Air Force reflect that they have purchased arms, ammunition, aircraft and other military hardware from different countries and also procured domestically amidst strain ties with China over border issues along the Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh region. The two countries are engaged in a border standoff since May 2020.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hailed the Budget presented by his colleague Sitharaman and said that the allocation of defence Budget would push for the 'Vocal for Local' initiative.

Rajnath highlighted that this year's Budget has increased the total outlay for effective capital expenditure by a massive 35.4 per cent to more than 10.6 lakh crores with the bulk of the money going into the development of social and physical infrastructure in the country.

He further said that 68 per cent of the defence capital procurement budget has been allocated towards local procurement.

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Last Updated Feb 1, 2022, 5:30 PM IST