Union Budget 2018: Defense Budget highlights

New Delhi, Feb 01: The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday presented the Union Budget on the floor of the Parliament. The budget for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was estimated at Rs 2.95 lakh crore, which does not include the budget for Defence Pensions.

In the 2018-19 Union Budget, the amount of Rs 2.95 lakh crore works out to around 1.58% of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Following the Indo China war, the share of defence in the GDP was increased from 1.5% to 2.31% in the 1963 Union Budget.

Of the total Defence Outlay, Rs 1.95 lakh crore was allocated for revenue expenditure (which includes day-to-day expenditures of the armed forces) and Rs 99,500 lakh crore was allocated for capital expenditure (which includes capital expenditure and modernization). The Defence Capital expenditure is up from Rs 86, 529 crore.

The Defence Pension, which is over and above the defence budget, was pegged at Rs 1.08 lakh crore. This is the first time India will spend more on pensions than it will on capital expenditure. Moreover, this is also the first time the pension amount has breached the Rs 1 lakh crore mark. This is a whopping rise of 26.6% from the Rs 85,740 crore allocated for Defence Pensions last year.