The economic downturn is now eating into the nation’s weapons acquisitions programme, as the central government is mulling an almost 25 per cent cut in the Rs 1,93,407 crore defence budget this fiscal year. This could adversely impact the weapons acquisition plans for India’s 13-lakh strong armed forces.
The 2012-13 capital expenditure on defence is Rs 79,579 crore, of which capital acquisition amounts to Rs 67,672.24 crore. After the cut, this could be reduced to about Rs 20,000 crore, defence ministry officials say. This would be over and above the 10 per cent cut already effected in the revenue budget by the finance ministry under its austerity measures.