By Staff Reporter
RAWALPINDI: Denying a raise in the next fiscal’s defence budget, the military on Tuesday asserted, in view of the runaway inflation, their allocation shrank by Rs100 billion, a claim that on the face of it does not add up.
An amount of Rs1.527 trillion has been earmarked for defence for the next fiscal, up 11.2 percent from the original estimates for the outgoing fiscal.
“Our share has actually decreased, contrary to perception, after factors such as inflation and rupee depreciation were accounted for,” said Major General Babar Iftikhar, Director-General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), during an interview to a private news channel
“There is an “annual debate” on army’s allocation following the budget and the money earmarked for defence services is based on the “threat perception, challenges, deployment and the resources available.”
So [after] considering all these things, the army hasn’t had any [net] increase in the budget since 2020, the DG ISPR claimed.
The Numbers
It is about 17.5 percent of the total current expenditure.
The total allocation for FY2023 is 15.8 percent of the total budget and 2.1 percent of the GDP compared to 16.19 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively, for FY2022.
Initially an amount of Rs1.37 trillion was allocated for defence for FY2022. The sum was later raised to Rs1.48 trillion.
Also, the defence budget is exclusive of pensions figured at Rs395 billion and listed under current expenditure, which reflect a 9.7 percent increase from last year.
Moreover, other major defence-related purchases and strategic programmes are not listed in the budget including the nuclear weapons programme.
Inflationary Impact
He added that it was 2.8 percent of the GDP last year and now they were at 2.2 percent so the budget was continuously going down in terms of the GDP.
He said that after factoring in this year’s inflation, the defence budget had actually taken a hit of Rs100 billion.
“Despite these challenges, we did not allow any shortcoming in our capabilities,” Major General Iftikhar stressed.
Military Tightens Belt
Elaborating on the measures taken by the army to curb its spending, he said instructions had been passed to conserve fuel and reduce expenditure on utilities, while Friday would be observed as a “dry day” where no official transport would be used except for emergencies.
“We have reduced unnecessary movement to save petrol and diesel,” he said, adding, “The army has also started holding conferences online instead of arranging physical events that incur additional costs”.
The head of the military’s media wing also mentioned they had returned the government Rs6 billion from Covid allotments and Rs3.5 billion from others in the last year’s budget.
Musharraf Return
The DG ISPR also confirmed that former army chief General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s family was in contact with the military regarding his mooted return to Pakistan. “The institution and its leadership have the stance that he should come back,” he added.
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