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Journalism of Courage
The modernisation budget of the armed forces is expected to be virtually the same as the previous fiscal with the Ministry of Defence Ministry surrendering Rs 5,221 crore despite last-minute interventions at the highest levels and sealing of hardware deals.
Government sources told The Indian Express that budget estimates for 2009-10 for capital acquisition was slated at Rs 40,367crore but the revised estimates in January 2010 stood at Rs 31,218 crore. It was only after the Finance Ministry was informed about the financial outgo on account of naval and IAF advanced and intermediate jet trainers,the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier,Brahmos cruise missiles and MiG-29K carrier-based fighters that the figure has now been revised to Rs 35,146 crore.
This is the third consecutive year when the MoD has not been able to utilise the modernisation budget it surrendered around Rs 5,000 crore in 2007-08 and Rs 7,000 crore in 2008-09.
This budget,the Finance Ministry is expected to allocate only Rs 40,500 crore for hardware acquisition. It is learnt that a cut in maintenance-and-repair is also expected with the Finance Ministry deciding to prune revenue expenditure too.
While the MoD has routinely demanded a higher defence outlay,Army headquarters sources told The Indian Express that a significant part of the militarys unspent Rs 6,000 crore has been diverted for the purchase of another 29 MiG-29K fighters for the Navy at the cost of $1.12 billion. There have been frantic efforts on both the Indian and Russian sides to sign this deal as MoD wants to spend money to take advantage of the protected price for the aircraft and Russia needs dollars to keep its MiG factory running.
Sources said the main reason for poor defence spending was the delay in the light,towed and mounted artillery gun deal with the Army insisting on standard 52-caliber howitzers. The problem is that four of the five 52-caliber gun manufacturers are under the CBI scanner following a scandal involving a top ordnance factory official.
