India raises defence capital budget by 19 percent

Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-01 20:11:29|Editor: huaxia

People watch the union budget presentation in the parliament on TV at a shop in New Delhi, India, Feb. 1, 2021. (Str/Xinhua)

NEW DELHI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- India has raised its capital expenditure on defence by nearly 19 percent to 135,060 crore Indian Rupees (around 18.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the government's budgetary proposals for the financial year 2021-22 (April 2021-March 2022).

The country's total defence budget, including payments of salaries and pensions to the defence personnel, for the next financial year is 478,195 crore Indian Rupees (65.4 billion U.S. dollars), according to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who presented the budgetary proposal for the next year in parliament on Monday.

The total defence budget will be used in defence procurements, modernisation of armed forces, production establishments, maintenance, as well as research and development organisations.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said it was the highest ever increase in capital outlay for defence in 15 years. Enditem

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