Budget 2016-17: India increases military spending by less than 1%

India announced on Monday it would spend 2.49 trillion Indian rupees ($36.5 billion) on defence in 2016-17, a marginal hike of 0.96% over last year’s revised estimates of 2.33 trillion rupees, The Hindustan Times reported on Monday.

The military spending does not include defence pensions that would take up the budget to nearly 3.41 trillion rupees compared to last year’s 2.93 trillion rupees.

The allocation for military modernisation in the budget stands at 8.7 trillion rupees.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made no mention of India’s defence allocation in his budget speech on Monday.

Reuters meanwhile reported that India plans to focus defence spending more on the domestic market instead of importing combat planes, ships and submarines, after saying on Monday it will leave military spending for 2016/17 largely unchanged following years of increases.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to end the military’s dependence on imports that have made it the world’s largest buyer, accounting for 14% of global imports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

India, China and Pakistan rank second and fourth on that list with their imports accounting for 4.7% and 3.3% of the global figure during 2014-15.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2016.