“The defense budget only caters to the needs of the maintenance of military installations and we cannot buy ships, aircraft and submarines from this meager money,” said Air Vice Marshal Arshad Qadoos. PHOTO: DESIGN-FAIZAN DAWOOD/FILE
“The defense budget only caters to the needs of the maintenance of military installations and we cannot buy ships, aircraft and submarines from this meager money,” said Air Vice Marshal Arshad Qadoos, additional secretary Ministry of Defense.
What AVM Qadoos called meagre money is Rs627 billion for the outgoing fiscal year -- 27.5% of this year’s revised tax target of Rs2.275 trillion.
AVM Qadoos was addressing an event organised by the Senate Standing Committee on Defense, to have an ‘open discussion’ on the defense budget.
Out of the Rs627 billion of the defense budget, 43.4% is spent on salaries and allowance, 25.8% on transport, fuel, ration and medical treatment while 21.1% is spent on physical assets and 9.9% on civil works.
“This year the armed forces’ tail has become longer, while the teeth have shortened”, said Qadoos.
‘Teeth’ are the proportion of expenditures being incurred on acquiring fighting assets to the expenses on logistical infrastructure and maintenance of troop, called ‘tail’.
Qadoos said that teeth shortened to 21% while tail became longer to 79% this year. Last year, the size of teeth was 22% while 78% was spent on other heads.
He said military’s share on account of Coalition Support Fund reimbursements and United Nations peacekeeping forces should be treated within the announced defense budget.
“The truth is somewhere between 16% and 30% and people should have an idea about it”, said Senator Sughra Imam of PPP, who is member of the Senate Standing Committee on Defense.
Qadoos said that the army gets a massive share of 70% of total defense budget and 63% of it is spent on paying salaries and allowance.
The Air Force gets one-fifth of the total budget and spends 41.5% on physical assets while the Navy’s share is one-tenth of the total budget and it spends 40% of it on procurements.
He said Pakistan was spending far less on defense when compared with regional peers.
Responding to the budget, Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the main problem with it was that it was conceived in the context of national security strategy, which itself is a product of military rather than the parliament.
On the other hand, Senator Mushahid Hussain praised the armed forces and said the parliament will support them.
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"Defence ministry official terms budget 'meagre'" +++++++++++++++++++ So what should the Defense Budget be? At least 15% more than india's?
Tax the rich tax evaders including the ruling elite and then fill the budget gaps. Without including the rich people in the tax bracket, there is no way out. There will be a time when Pakistan will have no money for this big army and they will be forced to trim down the size. That would be dangerous with the prevailing conditions on the borders. First tax all the parliamentarians who are living lavishly but show zero income to avoid taxes. If they can’t be taxed then their expensive cars should be impounded and auctioned and then ask them to use public transport.
Why the money the money earned through retail, bakery, fertilizer, banking and numerous other businesses goes? Why it's not used as part of "defence" budget?
"The Air Force gets one-fifth of the total budget and spends 41.5% on physical assets while the Navy’s share is one-tenth of the total budget and it spends 40% of it on procurements." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Information may be somewhat dated but pls read; "It further discloses that the Army’s one-day spending is equivalent to the running year’s total allocation for education ministry, and the air-force’s per day expenditures far exceed what was allocated to the health ministry for running the financial year ending this month." Source:http://ipl.edu.pk/document/Pakistan_Army.pdf
"“Pakistan as percentage of the gdp spends less than India on defence (3% vs 5%)”" +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dear Pakistanis worry not. One Pakistani soldier is at least equal to 10 Indian soldiers. Just calculate......
"“The defense budget only caters to the needs of the maintenance of military installations and we cannot buy ships, aircraft and submarines from this meager money,” " ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Pakistans Military preparedness was demonstarted at a place called Abbottabd...need I say more. Does the AVM have a comment what level of security that spend begets Pakistan?
"He said Pakistan was spending far less on defense when compared with regional peers." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Poor AVM does he know that Pakistan is also spending far less on Education, Health, Welfare etc when compared with Regional peers? Why are illiterates promoted to such levels?
" Air Vice Marshal Arshad Qadoos, additional secretary Ministry of Defense." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Poor AVM ...in the stamp of Ayub Khan and Zia does he not know that in democracies the Defence Allocation is decided by elected representatives?He should be sacked today.
" Rather disappointing that the Express Tribune appears to have been intimidated by the Military of Pakistan into not disclosing that Military Pensions amounting to PKR 100 Billion are outside the defence budget" +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ As a logical follow up I suggest that the wage bill of the Army, Air Force and Navy ( a mere 43% of 627 Bn) should also be included in the Civilain Budget. Pls be patriotic.
@Hari Om: "Rather disappointing that the Express Tribune appears to have been intimidated by the Military of Pakistan into not disclosing that Military Pensions amounting to PKR 100 Billion are outside the defence budget" ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sir pls understand that this is a sensitive time for media in Pakistan...a la Geo...wink wink...l
Rather disappointing that the Express Tribune appears to have been intimidated by the Military of Pakistan into not disclosing that Military Pensions amounting to PKR 100 Billion are outside the defence budget. Dawn on the other hand has shown its journalistic independence by disclosing this fact:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1107312/pakistans-defence-spending-lowest-in-region
Come on ET, shown some spine and report on all the fudging that has taken place by the Military of Pakistan in hoodwinking Pakistani civil society into believing that the Military budget is a lot smaller than it actually is.
@Ch. Allah Daad: I certainly hope that Pakistan becomes prosperous under Mian Nawaz Sharif as you expect. But why would you want to direct the incremental tax revenues to defense and increase defend tenfold? Why not direct that money to education, health, pulic transport, building dams, infrastructure for flood control! Skills development programs, power plants etc.? @Safwan: India spends 2.4% of GDP on defense and70% more or 4.1% of GDP on education. Pakistan spends 3.1% of GDP on defense and 45% less on education i.e. 1.7% of GDP.
"“The defense budget only caters to the needs of the maintenance of military installations and we cannot buy ships, aircraft and submarines from this meager money,”" ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Face Reality! The US freebies under the Coalition Support Funds is also coming to an end.
A great part of defense budget is spent on lifetime pensions and perks of officers which is not included in this. It is transferred to civilian budget during Mush's period. The compensation should be result oriented and performance based not automatic. In addition it would be fair to compare the salaries of Indian, BD and SL army officers vs Pakistani officers. If the army believes it is too little let us start a discussion about all the perks and businesses by the army. However, they would keep it all secret just like Rehman Commission Report.
"“The defense budget only caters to the needs of the maintenance of military installations and we cannot buy ships, aircraft and submarines from this meager money,” " ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Already Pakistan is reeling under 18 hour Loaddshedding and breakout of Polio......divert money from domestic projects to Military expenses and see conditions deteriorate even further,
If the budget is meagre, then please divert money from the staff cars, palatial bungalows and general razzmatazz that accompanies a senior military officer's life. And just how those generals manage to make those huge houses when they retire is beyond me !
@observer @MSS Excusez moi, I got my figures wrong. Yes, as percentage of the gdp, Pakistan and India spend more or less the same amount, around 3%. A sum that should be considered more or less sufficient by our generals. The additional revenue generated by a higher gdp to tax ratio, should be spent primarily on education and healthcare.
At a time when 190+ million are being crushed due to the policies and extravagancies of a few hundred thousand..........this type of statement comes across poorly.
If PML(N) government survives its full term and also allowed to implement its economic policies, elected government would be in position to provide ten times more resources to its armed forces. Insha-Allah.
@Safwan:
"Pakistan as percentage of the gdp spends less than India on defence (3% vs 5%)"
Those are totally erroneous numbers. Pakistan's TRUE spending on defense is close to 10-12% of GDP due to the following facts. First, Pakistan's true GDP is far less than the official number. Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz cooked to books to artificially inflate the GDP figures. Second, military pensions and perks, debt servicing on loans used to buy military equipment in the past, the annual spending of $3B on nuclear weapons and missiles are all outside the published budget defense spending.
India's defense spending is not 5% of its GDP. The actual figure is about 2.5%.
Why not. As always they want to devour our share also. Never mind, we'll eat the bullets like always.
@Safwan, You have got your figures wrong. India spends less than 3% of its GDP on defence. Actually, in 2012, India spent only 2.41% of its GDP on defence compared with Pakistan's 3.1257%. Both India and Pakistan now spend less on defence than they did in 1988. Then India spent 3.47% of its GDP on military compared with Pakistan's 7%. Both countries' military spending as a % of GDP in dollar terms has come down. You may want to check your figures by looking at World Bank data at http:\data.worldbank.org/topic/public-sector. You are right about the second part that as a proportion of the total budget Pakistan spends far too much on military compared with India. Because India's GDP in 2012 was 1859 Billion, 2.41% of that (44.8 Billion) is significantly more than 3.125% of 225.1 Billion (7.04 Billion) in Pakistan's case. 2013 data is not yet available on their website.
@ All,
DHA City Karachi and DHA Valley, Islamabad will be completed soon and possession to applicants in 2015
as long as pakistan is not paying american salaries its not too bad, the money is still circulating and probably contributing in economy
@Safwan; I don't know from where you get this figures but to have a cross country analysis, consistent definitions does matter and for this IFIs data base are the best. According to World bank figures, Pakistan military expenditures are around 3.1 % of GDP, compared to 2.4 and 2.0 % of India and China, respectively. Pakistan is also spending higher than India in terms of per capita on defense budget. Yes, I agree with you that Tax-to-GDP is quite low in Pakistan, but this is also true that we are already paying better to our troops compared to our capacity.
should we remind them Pakistan and Pakistani ppl are getting really meagre?
ET, where is my comment?
@Anon: but the colored part looks like a real coin like a small portion of it on the upper side.
@Safwan: rightly said, But they will never be serious about that, because those fish in the sea are the helper to those parties who spend them and brought them into power to safeguard their interests. Vote for PTI they have clear agenda in improving tax to GDP Ratio.
Instead of procuring from other countries these equipment should be built in Pakistan that will provide work to many hands it is the need of the hour .you are not bilding even ;ocomotives and rail compartmentsyou can not afford to import each and everything /Good luck
The image used in this story is tempting. I will go eat an Oreo biscuit now.
Tax the rich tax evaders including the ruling elite and then fill the budget gaps. Without including the rich people in the tax bracket, there is no way out. There will be a time when Pakistan will have no money for this big army and they will be forced to trim down the size. That would be dangerous with the prevailing conditions on the borders. First tax all the parliamentarians who are living lavishly but show zero income to avoid taxes. If they can't be taxed then their expensive cars should be impounded and auctioned and then ask them to use public transport.
Its very heartening to see discussion on defense budget in Parliament. Armed Forces of Pakistan MUST be subservient to the elected government and Parliament only. We long to see that day when defense budget will be apportioned within the walls of Parliament. Ameen.
627 billions MEAGRE what a joke the official must be thinking he is representing german or french army
The people those cry over defence budget ,will be shut off after this report.
Maybe it should start diverting money from 'allowances' (read: massive property portfolios in DHA and other VIP residential schemes for its retired generals) towards purchasing equipment instead of begging for more. This behavior is very unbecoming of the armed forces.
The 5-rupee coin looking more like "Oreo" biscuit.
I think our nation needs more awareness regarding defence budget so that they don't make clumsy claims of army taking 80% of the total budget of Pakistan. Its not even meagre keeping in view our security situation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listofcountriesbymilitary_expenditures
Please provide complete figures. For example, Pensions and after retirement benefits are not mentioned. Secondly, how much loans were acquired to buy equipment and assets for armed forces. As we all know that debt servicing (interest expense on a loan) is the biggest chunk of our budget.
Why not use the Bahria foundation money to pay for allowances for retired personnel? That is ALSO the people's money, not just the money of the retired Air Marshals'!
Good that these discussions are going in front of Senate Standing Committee. need more discussion on this and at the same time, need to respect the need for secrecy where required.
627 billion is meager? i guess it would sting a little less if all this spending got us a little peace and security, but then who am i to complain after all this is an army who has a country.
If the budget is "meagre", the military should pump in more money from the billions it earns through its businesses. Maybe even cut down on the princely lifestyles of the top brass.
Pakistan as percentage of the gdp spends less than India on defence (3% vs 5%) but as percentage of our state's budget it spends more, that is because our tax to gdp ratio is way too low (9-10%) India's tax to gdp ratio by comparasion is 17%, there is only one way out of this, the government must get serious about tax evasion and broadening the tax base. So far, after one year of governance, it has miserably failed to do.