Union Budget 2019 has announced allocations worth more than Rs 3 lakh crore for the defence forces. This is the highest allocation for the defence sector in the history of budgetary announcements.
New Delhi: Giving a boost to defence forces, the Narendra Modi government in its Budget 2019-20 announcements allocated more than Rs 3 lakh crore for the defence sector.
This is for the first time that India’s defence forces will get more than Rs 3 lakh crore from the Budget. Presenting the Budget for the financial year 2019-20, finance minister Piyush Goyal announced that more money will be sanctioned for the defence forces over and above what has been announced in the Budget if there is a need for it.
Speaking about the BJP government’s appreciation of the defence sector, Goyal spoke about the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme that had been implemented by the Centre following 40 years of protests by veterans that the previous governments had paid no heed to.
“The previous governments announced it in three budgets but sanctioned a mere Rs 500 crore in the interim budget of 2014-15. This had been pending for 40 years but has been implemented by us. In contrast, we have already disbursed over Rs 35,000 crore as part of OROP after implementing it in the true spirit,” Goyal said.
Further, Goyal said that the Modi government had announced a substantial hike in the military service pay of all service personnel and special allowances given to Navy and Air Force personnel deployed in high-risk areas.
In the Union Budget 2017-18 the then finance minister Arun Jaitley, who is currently in the US for medical treatment, had allocated Rs 2,95,511.41 crore for defence, accounting for 12.10% of the total central government expenditure for the year 2018-19.
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