75 contracts (worth Rs 1,67,898 cr) of 210 in last four financial years have been signed with foreign vendors

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, February 4

As the ‘DefExpo 2020’ opens here, the emerging contours of India’s military equipment acquisition are clear: the ‘Make in India’ push is unfolding and could lead to possible exports of some equipment; however, for now, the reality is that India’s import dependence has grown, instead of getting reduced.

The Ministry of Defence supplied data to the parliamentary standing committee and it indicates ‘dependence on the foreign vendors is rising’.

In the financial year April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015, the total procurement of weapons and equipment was worth Rs 65,859 crore (approximately $9.40 billion). The committee report, tabled in December 2019, says during the

period, the procurement from foreign vendors was worth Rs 25,980 crore (approximately $3.71 billion) which works out to be 39.62 per cent of the

total expenditure.

In the financial year April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, the total procurement was worth Rs 75,920 crore (approximately $10.84 billion) and the purchase of foreign equipment amounted to Rs 36,957 crore (approximately $ 5.2 billion). It comprised 48.67 percent of the spending.

Actually, the last fiscal (2018-19) saw sharp spike over the one ( 2017-2018) previous to that. Imports increased by almost 10 per cent largely due to part-payment for cutting-edge imported equipment like Rafale fighter jets, the heavy lift helicopters, Chinook CH 47, and attack copters,

the Apache AH64E.

In 2017-18 the total procurement was worth Rs 72,732 crore ($10.39 billion) off this a sum of Rs 29,035 crore ($ 4.14 billion) or 39.92 percent of it, was on imports. In the past few years, imports have hovered between 37 and 39 per cent of all procurement.

In the last four financial years (2015-16 to 2018-19),

a total of 210 contracts were signed, off these 75 contracts worth about Rs 1,67,898 crore ($23.98 billion) have been signed with foreign vendors, including those from the USA, Russia, Israel, France, etc., for procurement of defence equipment for armed forces. The defence equipment imported during this period includes helicopters, aircrafts, missiles, rifles, artillery guns, simulators and ammunition.

The five-day defence expo (February 5 to 9) opens in this city tomorrow and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate it.