New Delhi: India's defence spending is likely to rise by between 8 and 10 per cent in this year's Budget, not enough to please the armed forces, but enough for a gradual modernisation of the world's fourth-largest military, officials and analysts said.
India is emerging as one of the world's biggest arms buyers, and is planning one of its biggest ever arms purchases, a $10 billion deal to buy 126 fighter jets.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in India this week trying to push American bids for that deal. But a painfully slow bureaucratic process means arms purchases will be gradual, not sudden.
Spending plans will also be tempered this year with the government expected to present a budget on Friday with more money allocated for job creation schemes and healthcare ahead of elections due by next April.
"We expect the defence allocation to be in line with inflation and will not be surprised if it is lower than 10 per cent," a senior defence official told Reuters on Wednesday. Consumer price inflation ran at 5.51 per cent in 2007.
"The government seems set to present a people's budget, but we expect it to continue the process of acquiring new weapons systems," he said. India raised its defence budget by 7.8 percent to $22 billion for the year ending March 2008 as part of plans to modernise its 1.3-million-strong military.
But it failed to spend around 70 percent of its $10 billion allocation for capital outlay because of red tape. "What worries me is like all previous years we are unable to utilise the capital funds, as everyone is taking time in making decisions, which is not good enough," said Ashok Mehta, a retired army general.
Ever since a bribery scandal over the purchase of artillery from Swedish arms makers Bofors AB in 1986 seriously undermined the government of Rajiv Gandhi, defence ministry bureaucrats have been very cautious about signing arms deals.
At least 38 court cases relating to arms agreements are still pending against bureaucrats and military officers, records show. "The government is afraid of scams and more cases, so arms procurement will remain very slow," Mehta said.
Comments
0 comment