Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 21
India is at the top among 10 major countries in terms percentage of expenditure on procurement of military equipment and development of defence infrastructure of the total defence spending, but is at the bottom of the list as far as expenditure on operations and maintenance is concerned. The position regarding expenditure on defence personnel is also on the lower side.
While the imminent pay hike for the armed forces, as for all other central government employees, is good news on the personal front, higher pay scales come at the cost of funds for operations and maintenance.
This has been the finding of a study conducted for the Seventh Pay Commission by New Delhi-based think tank, Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis. The countries with which India has been compared include the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Russia, China and Pakistan.
In 2007, India had been placed in the ninth spot in terms of expenditure on personnel and in 2012 it moved up to the sixth spot. On the operations and maintenance front, it was in the ninth place in 2007 and slipped to the 10th in 2012.
“In India, expenditure on personnel as a percentage of total defence spending witnessed a sharp increase from 27.55 per cent in 2007 to 41.12 per cent in 2012, reflecting the impact of the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission. The conclusion that increased expenditure on personnel has been at the expense of operational and maintenance expenditure, which declined from 25.21 per cent in 2007 to 15.26 per cent in 2012, is inescapable,” the Commission’s report states.

Changing priorities

In 2007, India was placed in ninth spot in terms of expenditure on personnel (with 27.55% of defence budget) and in 2012 (41.12%) it moved up to the sixth spot

On the operations and maintenance front, it was in the ninth place in 2007 (25.21% of defence budget) and slipped to the 10th in 2012 (15.26%)