Parliamentary Panel Warns Against Military Funding Cut, Cites Border Tensions

The committee said there was a gap between the demand & allocation of capital outlay for the three defence services.

In the wake of heightened tensions prevailing at India's borders with neighbouring countries, adequate budgetary allocations should be made to the armed forces, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence said on Wednesday, 16 March.

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In the wake of heightened tensions prevailing at India's borders with neighbouring countries, adequate budgetary allocations should be made to the armed forces, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence said on Wednesday, 16 March.

Pointing out that there was a gap between the demand and allocation of capital outlay for the three defence services, the panel recommended the defence ministry to not reduce the outlay in future.

Tabling a report in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, the committee said that an allocation of only Rs 1,52,369.61 crore was made under the capital head as against the projected demand of Rs 2,15,995 crore.

Such curtailments, the committee said, may end up compromising operational preparedness of defence services.

"The committee further noted that at BE (budget estimate) stage in 2022-23, the gap between the projected and allocated budget for Army, Navy and Air Force is Rs 14,729.11 crore, Rs 20,031.97 crore and Rs 28,471.05 crore respectively, which are remarkably high," news agency PTI reported.

In its earlier reports, the panel, which comprises almost 30 lawmakers, including Nationalist Congress party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, had recommended making capital budget "non-lapsable" and "roll on."

The committee also noted that it was aware that a draft Cabinet note for non-lapsable defence modernisation fund was presently under consideration.

Until December 2020, the committee said that the defence ministry had used only Rs 2,33,176.70 although the budgetary allocation in the year 2020-21 was Rs 3,43,822.

Further, the panel urged the defence ministry to expedite the formation of "non-lapsable defence modernisation fund-defence renewal fund" so that they could be used to procure critical defence assets exclusively.

(With inputs from PTI.)