Modest hike in outlay for Defence

Dinakar Peri

March 1, 2015 

Despite repeated assurances, the much-talked-about “one rank, one pension” (OROP) scheme found no mention in the Union Budget on Saturday stuck as it is between the Services and the Defence Ministries.

“I have already in the last budget said that we are going to implement ‘one rank, one pension’. This need not be stated on every occasion. We are completely committed to it,” Mr. Jaitley told presspersons in response to a question.Calculation

Asked for the reasons for the delay, he said: “The methodology of calculating OROP is pending between the Services and the Defence Ministries,” and added that once formulated, it would be implemented.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had earlier assured that the OROP scheme would be allocated funds in this Budget and cleared soon.

With a major modernisation drive under way, the defence budget was increased by a modest Rs. 24,000 crore over the previous year’s to Rs. 2,46,727 crore.

This is 7.7 per cent over the budget estimates of 2013-14 and about 11 per cent over the revised estimates of Rs. 2,22,370 crore.

Of the allocation of Rs. 2,46,727 crore, revenue expenditure gets Rs. 1,52,139 crore and capital expenditure Rs. 94,588 crore.

However, committed liabilities within the capital budget are so high that it leaves little money for new acquisitions.

Additional funds will be required with mega deals to be decided soon, the biggest of them being the Rafale multi-role aircraft deal with France estimated at over $20 billion.

Others include artillery guns, Apache attack helicopters and Chinook heavy lift helicopters from Boeing.
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