Defence budget not sufficient to cater committed payment: Army vice chief

The marginal increase in Budget Estimates barely accounts for inflation and does not even cater for the taxes, says army's vice chief, Lieutenant General Sarath Chand

Expressing grave concern at the “insufficient” allocation of funds for new weaponry, a top army general has told the parliament’s standing committee on defence that the Budget announced on February 1 “has dashed our hopes”.
 
A draft report by the committee that Business Standard has reviewed notes that the army has been allocated just Rs 268.2 billion for equipment modernisation against the Rs 445.7 billion it had projected. That is barely 60 per cent of its request.
 
The navy’s and air force’s capital budget requests were slashed even more drastically. Against Rs 357 billion the navy projected, it