Budget 2013: Under scam shadow defence gets more
Today's
allocation
is
up
by
Rs
25,169
crore
from
last
year's
revisited
estimate
of
Rs
1,78,503
crore.
The
budget
estimate
was
Rs
1,93,407
crore
but
Rs
14,904
crore
was
slashed
by
the
finance
ministry
owing
to
the
strain
on
the
economy.
"I
propose
to
increase
the
allocation
for
defence
to
Rs
2,03,672
crore.
This
will
include
Rs
86,741
crore
for
capital
expenditure,"
Chidambaram
said.
"The defence minister has been most understanding and I assure him and the House that constraints will not come in way of providing any additional requirement for the security of the nation," he said.
The defence ministry is in a major modernization process with several acquisitions in the pipeline besides upgradation of infrastructure in the northeast along with China border.
Among the major acquisitions in the offing are the 126 multirole combat aircraft, 22 Apache attack choppers and 15 heavy-lift choppers.
The capital expenditure was hiked from Rs 69,579 crore last year to Rs 86,741 crore.
Defence minister AK Antony was satisfied with the allocation.
"Factoring the current economic scenario, he (Chidambaram) has been fair to the Defence sector also by increasing the budget and giving an assurance that should there be any urgent need in future the same would be provided," Antony told reporters.
PTI