1. The MoD website's Budget & Accounts has been updated last on 21.3.2014 (please do not rub your eyes - before the BJP Govt was sworn in).
2. An amount of Rs 2,29,000 crores was allotted in Budget 2014-15 and it was reduced to Rs 2, 23,370 crores in the Revised Estimates. Further the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence observed that MoD utilised only 87.21% of the allotted budget (Shri Arun Jaitely was Raksha Mantri), which is reported to be the lowest utilisation in the last six years! It is a moot point whether the reduction in the Defence budget was for Ministry of Finance (yes, headed by Shri Arun Jaitley) was balancing its books and showing a rosy picture! That probably explains why even the Rs 1500 crores allocated to payment of OROP was axed in the Revised Estimates!!
3. This year (FY 2015-16), Defence Budget is Rs 2,46,727 crores with another Rs 54,500 crores towards pensions and Rs 8852.6 crores towards Civil Expenditure of MoD (?).
4. In the opinion of Shri Ashish Cowshish, former FADS, in a column titled India’s Defence Budget 2015-16 A Quiet Saunter along the Familiar Road (http://www.indiastrategic.intopstories3701_Indias_Defence_Budget.htm), the budget allocation will make it "nearly impossible" to meet the implementation of OROP and the recommendations of the 7th CPC!
5. Could that be the reason for all this ominous silence of the powers-that-be about implementation of OROP, with the exception of the Raksha Mantri and his periodic statements justifying the "longest running reality show" as someone called it ?
Sir, it is doubtful there would be any expenditure in the financial year on account of recommendations of VII CPC.
ReplyDeleteBut since the budget is in the public domain, it ought not be too difficult for experts in the field of budgeting to establish a connection between balancing of books on one hand and the inability of the Government to keep mud off its face due to non implementation of OROP on the other.
The link for the report should be
ReplyDeletehttp://www.indiastrategic.in/topstories3701_Indias_Defence_Budget.htm