NEW DELHI, India, Dec. 3, Reuter: India will cut its defence budget this year by 192 million dollars to save money following its worst drought this century, Minister of State for Defence Shivraj Patil told Parliament on Thursday.
Patil said in a written reply the government will cut 2, 5 billion rupees from its budget of 101.94 billion rupees (7.84 billion dollars)
For the fiscal year ending March, 1988.
He did not say how the cuts would be made,
Weak monsoon rains have devastated production of food grains, oilseeds and cotton and the government has said it would need to spend 19 billion rupees (1.5 billion dollars) in additional expenses this year.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 11, 1987
