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Defence outlay hiked by 13.8 per cent

The country's total defence outlay for the year 2001-2002 has been hiked to Rs 750 billion (Rs 75,390 crores) from Rs 620 billion (Rs 62,000 crores), an increase of 13.8 per cent indicating the government's resolve to push ahead with ongoing modernisation drive in the armed forces

The defence allocation of the year works out approximately to 2.6 per cent of the GDP, a level being maintained post-Kargil for the last two years.

While, the allocation for the year 2000-01 was Rs 585 billion as per the budget estimates, the figure as per the revised estimates is Rs 544 billion apparently due to government not being ble to finalise major armament purchase deals like the Rs 65 billion advanced jet trainer project.

The army as usual gets the lion's share of the defence budget with a 8.64 per cent hike to Rs 317 billion, a jump of Rs 25.27 billion from the last years revised allocation of Rs 292 billion.

The navy and air force have seen a marginal increase in allocation to Rs 43.31 billion and Rs 79.23 billion respectively.

Defence capital outlay for the year has seen a sharp increase of Rs 51.79 billion to Rs 199.58 billion over the revised estimates for the 2000-01 indicating that some more major weaponry acquisition could be in the pipeline after the recent signing of the T-90 tanks purchase deal with Russia.

Budget 2001
Money

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