NEW DELHI: The Defence Budget for 2023-24 has been enhanced by around Rs 68,834 crore. It is an increase of 13.10 per cent and is going to be Rs 5.94 lakh crore for the year 2023-24. It was Rs 5,25,166 cr for year 2022-23. There has been a rise in allocations including the Defence Pensions and the Revenue outlay.
The proposed budget for Defence revenue expenditure has been pegged at Rs 2.77 lakh crore for this year against Rs 2.39 lakh crore for 2022-23. This is a massive increase of 15.90 per cent.
Capital Outlay, meant for modernisation and infrastructure development of the Armed Forces, has been increased by Rs 10, 230.39 crore, which is a rise of 6.7%, to Rs 1,62,600 (was Rs 1,52,369.61 in 22-23). The same was increased by about 9.8% for the previous year.
The Defence Pensions have increased by ₹18,509 crore; it has been pegged at ₹1,38,205 (it was Rs 1,19,696 for 22-23). This increase in percentage terms is around 13.39.
To elaborate on the data from the previous years, the Defence Budget for the financial year 2022-23 was Rs 5,25,166 crore. It was an increase of Rs 46,970 crore over last year's Rs 4,78,196 crore and included pensions too. It was an increase of 9.8 per cent but keeping the threat perceptions along the borders, the important capital outlay has been raised by more than 10 per cent for the second consecutive year.
The total defence budget minus the pensions pegged at Rs 119,696 crore stands at Rs 405,470 crore for the year 2022-23.
There was a major push towards the modernisation of the armed forces in the previous year which saw an increase of more than 10 per cent in the Capital Budget. The Capital Budget allocation was increased by Rs 17,309 crore to reach Rs 152,369 crore, an increase of 12.6% over the capital of Rs 1,35,060.72 crore for FY 2021-22 which was an increase of 18.75 per cent over FY 2020-21. The budget earmarked for 2020-21 was Rs 4,71,378 crore (US$ 66.9 billion) for the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The Union Budget for the Financial Year 2021-22, presented on February 1, 2021 had given a major push to defence modernisation by increasing defence capital outlay by 18.75 per cent.
Defence allocation in the budget was Rs 4,78,195.62 crore for the Financial Year 2021-22. Excluding defence pensions, the total allocations for defence services and other organisations/departments under the Ministry of Defence for the FY 2021-22 was Rs 3,62,345.62 crore which was an increase of Rs 24,792.62 crore over the Financial Year 2020-21.
The budget in 2020-21 was Rs 4,71,378 crore (growth of 9.4%). Excluding pensions, it came to 3,23,053 crore. In 2019-20, the total allocation was Rs 4,31,011 crore (growth of 6.6%) and it stood at Rs 3,05,296 crore without pensions. In the same period, the Capital Expenditure allocation was Rs 1,03,394 crore and Rs 1,13,734 crore respectively with an average increase of 10%.
The capital acquisition of the armed forces consists of two components: (i) committed liabilities, and (ii) new schemes. Committed liabilities are payments anticipated during a financial year in respect of contracts concluded in previous years (as the acquisition is a complex process involving long gestation periods). New schemes include new projects which are at various stages of approval and are likely to be implemented in future.
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