Defence gets Rs1,289 bn

ISLAMABAD: The government Friday proposed Rs1,289 billion for the defence budget for the year 2020-21 showing an increase of 5.1 percent compared to the last year’s revised defence estimates of Rs1,227 billion for the year 2019-20.

In terms of US dollars, the volume of the defence budget remained almost unchanged, as the proposed allocations stands at $7.8 billion for the year 2020-21. The government announced Rs1,152 billion defence budget (7.6 billion dollars) last year which was later on revised to Rs1,227 billion.

The proposed defence budget is 20.3 percent of current expenditures of Rs6,344 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. “We have given special emphasis to defence of the country and internal security,” Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar in his budget speech.

He praised the armed forces for their cooperation in the austerity measures being undertaken by the government. Out of the total defence budget, the major chunk of Rs1,286.1 billion is reserved for defence services and Rs2.9 billion proposed to be allocated for defence administration.

The total defence allocations include Rs475 billion employees related expenses, Rs 301 billion for operating expenses, Rs357 billion for physical assets, while Rs157 billion is proposed to be spent on civil works.

The last year’s budget was revised from Rs1,152 billion to Rs1,227 billion due to increase in expenses on employees, physical assets and civil works. The Indian government in February last announced around $66 billion budget, which was nearly nine times higher than Pakistan’s proposed defence allocations of $7.8 billion for the financial year 2020-21.