Defence budget hiked by 4 per cent

26 Feb 10

The government on Friday allocated Rs 1,47,344 crore towards defence in 2010-11 budget, a paltry 4 per cent increase from last year's Rs 1,41,703 crore, news agency PTI reported.

Of the allocation provided, Rs 60,000 crore would go for capital expenditure, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said presenting the Budget for 2010-11 in the Lok Sabha.

The four per cent increase in real terms would amount to only Rs 5,641 crore.

Last year, the government had provided a steep hike of about 34 per cent for the defence working out to an increase of Rs 36,103 crore.

Mukherjee, however, said considering the importance of defence of the country, more funds would be provided on the basis of requirements in the future.

The defence allocation continues to hover over 2.5 per cent of the GDP, though there have been suggestions to increase it substantially in view of the prevailing security situation.

According to Mukherjee, India has weathered global economic crisis well. Indian economy in far better position than it was a year ago. In 2009, Indian economy faced grave uncertainty; delay in southwest monsoon had undermined agricultural production.

Economy posted a remarkable recovery expected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2009-10 against 6.7 per cent in 2008-09.

First challenge now is to quickly revert to nine per cent growth and then aim for double digit growth; need to make recovery more broadbased, he said.

Get the latest stories first with info4security's newsletters: Click to signup

Post and bookmark this story at the following sites:

What is this?

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit	Google	Newsvine