NEW DELHI: Hit by an acute resource crunch the Army is seeking an additional Rs 1000 crore from the Government to maintain its present level of defence preparedness.
Faced with the squeeze the Army is set to make a presentation to the Cabinet in the next few weeks seeking additional funds. The theme of the presentation will be simple: Defence preparedness cannot be maintained at the current levels with the money available. “We know we are not living in a petrodollar country but we are faced with two hostile nations with whom we have fought four wars and the irony is that our Operational Directives dictate that we maintain a realistic level of defence preparedness with an unrealistic budget” says a Defence Ministry source.
Though the defence establishment would not articulate it in such terms its pitch seems to be that either the budget should be increased or there should be a change in the Operational Directives issued to the armed forces.
The additional amount is required to meet credit servicing for past purchases. The Army is falling short by as much as Rs 600-700 crore this year on this account Defence sources say with its budget the Army cannot even service its credits leave alone making much needed new purchases The contractual obligation on the Bofors howitzers itself takes away Rs 650 crore this year from the Army’s purse.
It is pointed out that the Siachen operations of the Army cost over Rs one crore a day. If the political masters arrive at an agreement with Pakistan on Siachen this huge amount would come down drastically.
“If we get Rs 500 crore extra we can just about manage to keep going. And mind you this does not involve purchase of new desperately needed stuff like air defence systems” says a source.
At Rs 17500 crore in the current year defence spending is dwindling by the year. Though the budget shows a hike of 7% over Rs 16,350 crore last year given the annual rate of allocation of 12% the allocation actually works out to an increase of 6%.
As a study of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) points out defence spending in India in real dollar terms this year is likely to be the lowest in the last three decades.
The three services got just over Rs 5000 crore for stores With an additional Rs 5300 crore on capital outlay it means that the forces got Rs 10000 for buying equipment the basic needs of the services and payments to the ordnance factories. And of course there remains the sensitive question of payments for contracted supplies from the erstwhile Soviet Union The Amy alone is required to pay Rs 700 crore this year for the supplies
Top defence officials are per turbid that at regular intervals the political masters lecture the armed forces on the need to maintain the highest level of Preparedness while pontificating on the need to economize.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 6, 1992
