Budget 2018: India largest arms importer, yet defence of realm falters

Budget 2018-2019 : India is the fifth largest military spender (2016) in the world and the largest importer of arms, accounting for 13% of the world’s total imports between 2012 and 2016, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank.

However, over three years to 2017-18, there was a 9% decline in budget allocation for capital investments against requirements, or “projections” in officialese, a factor that could delay procurement and modernisation of the armed forces, according to a report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee On Defence 2017-18, an advisory body to the defence ministry, presented to the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) on December 19, 2017.

The air force capital budget was 46% lower than its requirements, the Army's was 41% and the Navy's 32%, the report said.

The budget for defence expenditure–including revenue (salaries, transportation costs, stores), capital investments (equipment, ammunition), pensions and miscellaneous–in 2017-18 was Rs 359,854 crore, up 56% from Rs 230,642 crore in 2012-13.

Defence allocation accounted for 17% of the central government budget (Rs 21.46 trillion) in 2017-18.

Revenue expenditure accounted for 48% of defence budgetary allocation in 2017-18, up from 44% in 2015-16.

Pensions and capital outlay accounted for 24% each of allocations, as against 20% and 24% in 2015-16, respectively.

More than 75% of budget allocation (Rs 356,854 crore) and 80% allocation under the capital head (Rs 86,488 crore) in 2017-18 has been spent till December 2017, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament) in her reply on January 1, 2018.