Says defence budget only covers salaries, maintenance, transport costs. PHOTO: DESIGN-FAIZAN DAWOOD/FILE
A senior defence ministry official on Monday said that a modest defence budget of Rs 627billion would not allow the country’s military to procure new ships, aircraft and submarines.
“The defence budget only caters to maintenance of military installations, operating expenses, paying salaries and carrying out civil works and we cannot buy ships, aircraft and submarines from this meagre money”, said Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Arshad Qadoos, additional secretary at the defence ministry.
He was addressing an event organised by Senate Standing Committee on Defence which aimed at having an ‘open discussion’ on the defence budget, its size, structure and the armed forces’ perspective on budgetary requirements.
What AVM Qadoos called “meagre” accounts for Rs627 billion in the outgoing fiscal year — 27.5% of this year’s revised tax target of Rs2.275 trillion.
Explaining the distribution of funds between the fighting arms of the military, AVM Qadoos said that the army gets the lion’s share (70%) of the defence budget and 63% of it is used for 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.
Giving details of expenditure, AVM Qadoos said that out of Rs627 billion, 43.3% is spent on salaries and allowances, 25.8% on transport, fuel, rations and medical treatment, 21.1% on physical assets and 9.9% on civil works.
He added that the 21% spending on physical assets was on account of maintaining existing fighting assets. “This year, our armed forces’ tail has become longer reaching 79%, while our teeth has shortened to 21%,”said Qadoos. Teeth are the proportion of expenditures being incurred on acquiring fighting assets, whereas expenses incurred on logistical infrastructure and maintenance of troops are called tail.
Qadoos claimed that the defence budget was only 16% of the national budget and expenses on account of procuring fighting assets should not be treated as part of the defense budget.
Pakistan has recently acquired F-16s from Jordan and the government has booked the cost outside the defence budget, according to finance ministry officials.
Qadoos’s comments came at a time when parliamentarians have called for more transparency in defence spending. “The truth is somewhere between 16% and 30% and people should have an idea about it,” said Senator Sughra Imam of the PPP, who is member of the Senate Standing Committee on Defence.
PPP’s Senator Farhatullah Babar said the defence budget should not be tailored in a manner that understates actual spending. “Pakistan’s defence budget is always formulated by the GHQ’s threat perception and anyone who dares to challenge this perception is called a traitor,” he added.
Babar said GHQ formulates its threat perception without consulting parliament. He said military pensions should be treated as part of the defence budget. There is need to look into state subsidies and other support provided to armed forces entities doing commercial businesses, he said.
Currently, a number of items related to defence spending are not part of the official defence budget. Apart from military pensions, the military receives Rs150 billion in grant as contingent liabilities every year which is also unrecognised as part of the defence budget.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2014.
COMMENTS (12)
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"Pakistan has recently acquired F-16s from Jordan and the government has booked the cost outside the defence budget, according to finance ministry officials." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thats cause the F16s will be used actually for the Metro Bus service.
"PPP’s Senator Farhatullah Babar " ++++++++++++++++++++++ Has won my respect for his plain talk.
"Senate Standing Committee on Defence " +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Committe stands up when the Defence Personnel enter.... +
What is meagre? ++++++++++++++++++ inadequate, scanty, scant, paltry, limited, restricted, modest, insufficient, sparse, spare, deficient, negligible, insubstantial, skimpy, short, little, lean, small, slight, slender, poor, miserable, pitiful, puny, miserly, niggardly, beggarly
Now imagine what is too meagre.:).
"He said military pensions should be treated as part of the defence budget" ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I disagree. All hardware like aircrafts, Ships Submarines etc should be outside the defence budget and Pensions along with Salaries and Allowances should also be excluded from the Defence Budget. Thats Patriotism.
"we cannot buy ships, aircraft and submarines from this meagre money”, +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ So how about exporting some Nuclear technology and earning the needed funds in a respectable way?Oh that is already happening....err erre.
" There is need to look into state subsidies and other support provided to armed forces entities doing commercial businesses, he said." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ So how about appointing Auditors to analyse and present the complete picture?
"Babar said GHQ formulates its threat perception without consulting parliament. " +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ That is the divine privilige of the GHQ.
"Apart from military pensions, the military receives Rs150 billion in grant as contingent liabilities every year which is also unrecognised as part of the defence budget." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Corrected: Apart from military pensions, ( Rs 100 Billion) the military receives Rs150 billion in grant as contingent liabilities every year which is also unrecognised as part of the defence budget. Did someone say Transparency/?
@Jahangir Saleem: Everyone will going there if they get 400million at the end of their service. If you dont know after retirement these general get lots of money then i cant argue with you not any more.. Army charges every thing double. They just play with Account and auditioning.
Mr Mirza, poor people are also dying of bullets, blasts and ambush on the borders .. considering their duty. i bet no civilian cannot dare to go in such terrain even as a doctor .. Talking about defence budget, one thing is very clear that Rs 627 billion is not a fair share keeping the expenses in view. Salaries, allowances, pensions, procurements, ration, fuel, medical expenses, infrastructure, maintenance cost of equipment and ammunition is something which requires alot more .. Instead of cutting defence budget, the government needs to pay attention to the white elephant like pakistan steel mill, railway, PIA, IESCO and other organizations who are consuming the major chunk of budget ..
Defense budget is still fine despite shifting all the pensions and perks into civilian budget. Like all dept. the budget should be performance and results oriented not a bottomless bucket. We are a tiny third world economy and cannot afford these non productive expenses. Poor people are dying but not in cantonment areas.