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Pak to raise defence spending by Rs 83 bn; armed forces to get Rs 1.4 tn in budget

Sun, 05 Jun 2022   |  Reading Time: 2 minutes

Islamabad, Jun 5 (PTI) Pakistan’s armed forces are likely to be allocated Rs 1.4 trillion (USD 7.6 billion) in the budget for the next fiscal year, about Rs 83 billion higher than the current year, a media report said on Sunday.

Defence spending often comes under scrutiny at the time of the annou­nce­ment of the annual budget when allocati­ons for various sectors are earmarked. The allocation of Rs 1.453 trillion (USD 7.6 billion) would be about Rs 83 billion higher than the outgoing year’s allocation of Rs 1.37 trillion, an increase of almost six per cent, the Dawn newspaper reported.

The increased amount, defence sources say, will be consumed mostly by the allocation for employees-related expenses, salaries and allowances of servicemen. Other heads of the budget include civil works, which caters for the military infrastructure development and repairs; physical assets that relate to local purchases of arms and ammunition and some imports and the related costs; and operating expenses, which cover costs incurred on transport, ration, training and treatment, the report said.

The powerful Pakistan Army, which has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its nearly 75 years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in the matters of security and foreign policy. Former prime minister Imran Khan, who was ousted from power in April through a no-trust vote, had apparently lost support of the Army after he refused to endorse the appointment of the ISI spy agency chief last year.

According to sources, the spending per soldier is about Rs 2.65 million per annum, which, they claim, is not even one-third of what India spends. A raise of Rs 136 billion was expected after taking into account an average of 11.3 per cent inflation for the outgoing year, the report said. Therefore, in number terms, the armed forces would be getting about Rs 53 billion less than what they say was needed for coping with inflation, it said. The impact of the defence spending is measured in two ways — the share of the defence services in the overall budget pie and as a percentage of the GDP.

The share in the total outlay explains how much money is going to the armed forces. Meanwhile, calculating the defence budget as a percentage of the GDP indicates its burden on the national economy. The defence budget, going by these figures, would be about 16 per cent of the total outlay — much similar to the outgoing year.

But, in terms of the GDP, its share would go down from 2.54 per cent in the outgoing year to 2.2 per cent in the next fiscal year.



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POST COMMENTS (2)

Girish

Jun 06, 2022
Kalimantan Singh: ur last para makes me question whose side are you on.

Kalidan Singh

Jun 05, 2022
I am not sure what the Pakistani military is playing at. This amount is not enough for anything. They have lost the war with TTP inside Pakistan. They cannot protect the citizens of their overlords (China) in Pakistan. They are unable to control independence movement in Baluchistan. They cannot deal with Afghan insurgents in Sindh. They are yet to dominate Afghanistan as they had imagined they would; their border is meaningless (Afghanistan wants all the area up to Islamabad, on account of common tribal affiliations). No one in the Islamic world takes them seriously as a military power. They should spend three to four times more on their military. The source of military funds should come from additional taxation on incomes (which today virtually no Pakistani businesses pay). I.e., their situation is horrifyingly bad. Even when they has a spigot of cash for their military, they were highly ineffectual. Three of the four wars Pakistan did not win (1947, 1965, 1999) and lost badly (1971) were financed by US money and arms. I.e., even US supplied free stuff was not enough. Now it does appear that free stuff from the US is drying out, and even Kazakhstan did not give money when asked (I understand China is forking over some money now). I strongly encourage the Pakistan military to take greater control of the Pakistani economy than they currently do. It is true, their grip on the economy at present is formidable both in legal trade, and illegal cornering of the market for basic products and services. But not nearly enough. Pakistan still spends money on largely redundant initiatives such as education, health, and justice. Those funds should now be diverted to the military. The Pakistani military has yet to win anything outside its borders, and this amount is not nearly enough.

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