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Defence ministry seeks 18% rise in military budget
Restoration of the Armed Forces Defence Programme also on the cards.
Restoration of the Armed Forces Defence Programme also on the cards.
ISLAMABAD:
The military establishment has sought an increase in the Rs495 billion defence budget proposed by the finance ministry to Rs524 billion, or 18.4 per cent more than the budget for the outgoing fiscal year.
After a briefing by the Ministry of Defence on next year’s defence and security requirements, the chairperson of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance Fauzia Wahab said the proposed defence budget of Rs495 billion might be increased keeping rising needs in mind. Wahab said the defence budget can be increased up to three per cent of the total size of the economy, while the proposed budget is 2.5 per cent of GDP.
The defence ministry has also sought restoration of the Armed Forces Defence Programme that had an outlay of $1.5 billion (Rs129 billion). The programme had been discontinued some years ago, which is creating problems, Wahab quoted the defence ministry as saying.
“Both the committee and the Ministry of Defence have shown concerns over not fully funding military research that has undermined the defence system,” the chairperson said.
The finance ministry has proposed Rs495 billion or a 12 per cent rise for next year’s defence budget. However, documents show that the defence ministry wants this to be increased to Rs524.3 billion, which is 18.4 per cent or Rs81.5 billion more than the defence budget of the outgoing fiscal year. For the current fiscal year the government had allocated Rs442 billion.
The defence ministry has also sought Rs202.4 billion for staff expenses, which is Rs25.6 billion or 14.5 per cent more than the expenses in the outgoing fiscal year. The expenses are for the salary and allowances of military personnel, documents show.
For operating defence expenses, the ministry has asked for Rs127.6 billion, which is Rs18.3 billion or 16.7 per cent more than the outgoing year’s budget. The operating expenses comprise travel allowance, daily allowance, PIA fares, railways charges, repair of vehicles, telephone, stationary, ration, petroleum charges, military farms, medical stores and reimbursement of training charges.
For building physical assets, the defence ministry has sought Rs148.2 billion, which is Rs30.5 billion or 26.2 per cent higher than the present year’s budget. The physical assets include indigenous purchases, defence imports and customs surcharges.
Meanwhile for civil works, the defence ministry has sought Rs46 billion, which is Rs7 billion or 17.9 per cent more than last year’s allocation. This includes maintenance, residential and non-residential schemes and specific projects.
The defence ministry told the committee that additional funds have been sought to meet expenses of troops’ deployments in restive areas, ration expenses and offset the impact of rupee depreciation against dollar as well as double-digit inflation.
Secretary Defence, Lieutenant General retired Syed Ather Ali told the committee that until April this year Rs360.8 billion or 82 per cent of the total allocated budget for the outgoing fiscal year had been spent.
Meanwhile, there were some conflicting reports about the panel’s recommendation to expel US officials and forces from Pakistan in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s killing. A committee member Kashmala Tariq had said on a television programme that the committee had unanimously recommended throwing Americans out the country. But Wahab denied that there were any such recommendations. “The issue did not crop up during the meeting,” she added.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 12th, 2011.
Reader Comments (13)
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Why an increase in defense budget of a poor nation?
What taxes these Generals and DHA people pay?
Why concessions to them for PIA, Railway, Petrol etc?
Why not cut the army by 25% and its budget too.
They are not to fight anyone except the Pakistan, which they can do it even with 25% of its present capaicty.Recommend
Keeping in view of their high achievements, we should reward them with much more than 18%. If we do not give it to them they would take it anyway.
Why do flood victims, and bloody civilians need any money for educaation, healthcare and public works? They are used to living without them anyway. Their kids can go to madarsas and do not reach old age to require healthcare.
Schools and housing are great in DHA and golf courses are green with pleny of water. Pakistan was made by bloody civilians for the army which had no role in its creation, but its disintegrations. Long live military incorporated.Recommend
when it comes to budget army want wants its share from hook or crook but when it comes to performance even DG ISPR is not available for comments. time has proved our army failures .now we should put my emphasis on health and educationRecommend
Miss print 81%Recommend
This is complete rubbish.
We need to spend on BASIC EDUCATION! I will support a 1000% increase in Education budget but not 1% on DEFENCE. I mean seriously need BASIC EDUCATION so that our people’s BASIC INTELLIGENCE can develop… I mean even with the current high amount of funds for DEFENCE spending we were clueless when a bunch of helicopters entered our airspace, landed troops on our soil and carried out an operation.
OUR DEFENCE WAS ZERO. I need them to justify such a major INTELLIGENCE failure before I give one more rupee in taxes to DEFENCE. In the mean time, please give everything to education so that our people get some basic intelligenceRecommend
“We have failed miserably, so we need an increase in budget to improve ourselves.
… And while you’re at it, can you also roll out a few hundred acres of agricultural, residential and commercial land for us retiring generals? We’ve earned that much! Thanks.”Recommend
Only yesterday it was a 12% increase?? After Abbottabad failure it is 18% increase. Go figure?? I have a bad feeling about this whole military BS. If I say anything, lot of people get upset. So might as well register my protest in silence.Recommend
Well, with this hike in defence expenditure, the rest of the fields like health, education, public works etc may be treated as closed for an indefinite period till green signal is given by the GHQ.Recommend
Spending to spread incompetence!Recommend
i can understand great concern by all u people over expected increase in defence budget. its difficult to understand that these expenses are necessary if it would have not been there our dear country would have been in the hands of some enemy some ten years back. Even now all evil forces are trying to get us through a propaganda dont forget its defence forces of pakistan who r surity to our survival. Generals playing golf or living in DHA is no one like our most of our leaders came from abroad will rule here collect lot of money and runaway, they are men like u , who have given more than 30 dedicated years to this country dont forget they havnt been generals throughout thier service. if u want cut thier PIA RAIL and Petrol expenses remember ” sapahi bokay pait nhi larta” . Defending country is a sacred task and after giving a prime time of ones life if someone is getting some reward than i feel he deserves that.
Mistakes is something that cant be avoided by any human wether its army general or a politicain but repetition of mistake is something to worry about . I hope our forces are going to tell not only this nation but whole world wat they are capable of , and i also feel that most of the people who are critisizing incresae in defence budget they dont have complete picture of how defence system is working. it has been developed and is at its present stage after years of lessons and experiments , it cant work if it is not like this . how much we are spending on our police and what they giving us . i believe total zero result , crimes are going up and every pakistani knows that our police culture is helping crime rate to increase and criminals to enjoy every freedom. Have anybody any evidence of a soldier placed on some duty and he is not performing well and cant u see a police man posted to enforce rule of law is just there to collect ten rupees each from bike riders . everybody have right to point out any mistake in system but plz first have complete knowlegde of that thing .Recommend
Again, its not the amount of money its what its being spent on. They can atleast make an effort to show that they are trying to use the money in as transparent and efficient manner as possible. And do these figures included CSF funds or are those on top of this amount.Recommend
@kamran: What a rubbish piece of text it is? Come on, enough is enough. Let us put pressure on govt. not to raise defence budget. Instead, it is time to cut our defence budget sharply. People of Pakistan have already paid the price for so-called secuirty and have been suffering since independence. It is time to do accountability of armed forces, military inc, and everyone who has exploited people’s resources badly. Since armed forces take the largest chunk of budget, so they are more accountble compared to others.
@Raj: Mr.Raj mind your own business. Take care of yor own issues and find some time to look at your own defence budget, which sky rockets every year. Indians have a very deep complex of superiority and they are dying to become a regional super-power at the expense of their own people’s blood. Don’t you know that millions of Indians are still living below povert line and the number is rising day by day. Please pay attention to your problems and let us tackle ours.Recommend
@kamran:
our police!… you havre the audacity to blame it on the police… how much moeny are we giving to themm… please check yourself the money allocated to internal security tht is police and to ‘external secutirites’ i.e. golf courses dha plots, etc.Recommend