ISLAMABAD: The federal government has proposed Rs1,100 billion allocationfor defence budget for the financial year 2018-2019, showing an increase oflittle over 10 percent from the revised estimates of Rs998 billion for theyear 2017-2018 to cater to needs of the armed forces and otherdefence-related establishments. The proposed defence budget is about 26percent of the total estimated current expenditure of Rs4,178 billion fornext fiscal.
The Pakistan Army would get major chunk of Rs523 billion from the defencebudget. The major part of it, which is Rs295.5 billion, would go toemployees-related expenses and Rs82 billion would be used for operatingexpenditure.
The Pakistan Air Force would receive Rs233.7 billion against the previousbudget’s revised estimates of Rs201 billion with Rs50.7 billion going toemployees related expenses, Rs121 billion for physical assets and Rs28.6billion for operating expenses. The Pakistan Navy’s budget has been kept atRs119.3 billion against the last budget’s revised estimates of Rs190.3billion. Out of it, Rs32` billion would be spent on employees and Rs55.3billion for physical assets. An amount of Rs223.9 has been proposed fordefence production establishments, ISOs and accounts organs.
Pakistan’s defence budget, which is around 9.25 billion in terms of USdollars, is nearly seven times less than defence budget of India. TheIndian government had announced 63 billion dollars defence budget for thefiscal year 2018-19.