Pakistan has approved Rs 860 billion defence outlay for the upcoming financial year starting in July, officials said.
Pakistan has approved Rs 860 billion defence outlay for the upcoming financial year starting in July, officials said.
This will be a 10 per cent raise against Rs 781 billion expenditures of the outgoing fiscal year.
Although breakup of the defence allocation will be released in the budget documents to be presented on June 3, the Rs 79-billion increase suggests that main focus of the country’s defence strategy remains fighting militancy. Recent Indian missile tests has indirectly forced Pakistan to review and strengthen its defence, officials said.
However, contrary to the defence expenditures earmarked for the outgoing fiscal year, the actual defence outlay for the upcoming year has been reduced by more than one per cent. The defence allocations for the year 2015-2016 to the tune of Rs 781 billion were 11.6 per cent up. Of Rs 781 billion, the Army got the lion’s share — 48 per cent out of the defence budget pie — while it was Navy that saw its share grow by 19 per cent because of plans for buying submarines and helicopters. The share of various services in the defence budget for 2015-2016 was Army (Rs 371 billion), Air Force (Rs 164.24 billion) and Navy (Rs 85 billion).
Rs 326 billion were spent on expenses related to employees that include pay and allowances.
