NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Wednesday released data according to which its allocated budget for capital procurement from domestic industry in the financial year 2021-22 exceeded the earmarked 64 percent.
The MoD in a statement said, “At the end of FY 2021-22, MoD has been able to over achieve this target and has utilised 65.50 per cent of Capital Acquisition Budget on indigenous procurements through Indian industry."
"Further, as per preliminary expenditure report of March 2022, MoD has been able to utilise 99.50 per cent of the Defence Services Budget in FY 2021-22," it added.
India has the dubious distinction of being among the top importers of defence arms and equipment. The current government has been pushing for self-reliance in defence under its 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' campaign.
The allocation under capital expenditure relates to modernisation and infrastructure development of the Armed Forces. The Defence Budget for the financial year 2022-23 saw the important capital outlay raised by more than 10 percent for the second consecutive year.
In accordance with the push towards the modernisation of the armed forces, this year saw an increase of more than 10 percent in the Capital Budget. The Capital Budget allocation has 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 total defence budget for 2022-23 is Rs 5,25,166 crore. This is an increase of Rs 46,970 crore over last year's Rs 4,78,196 crore and includes pensions too. The total defence budget minus the pensions pegged at Rs 119,696 crore stands at Rs 405,470 crore for the year 2022-23.
In continuation with the government’s efforts to promote private industry, MSMEs and startups in defence production ecosystem, the Ministry of Defence on April 8, 2022 decided that 25% of the Domestic Capital Procurement/Acquisition Budget, amounting to Rs 21,149.47 crore, will be earmarked for domestic private industry in the financial year 2022-23.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defence had decided to earmark 68% of the capital procurement budget for the entire domestic industry during the financial year 2022-23. Accordingly, an amount of Rs. 84,597.89 crore was allocated specifically for the domestic defence industry in the current financial year.