Defence budget hiked 10 per cent, government accepts 'one rank, one pension'

[Agent_47]

The Centre today announced that it has accepted the "one rank, one pension" principle for the forces as part of a 10 per cent hike in the defence budget, a decision that the ruling Congress hopes will win it the support of lakhs of soldiers ahead of the national election, due by May.

In his interim budget speech, Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced that the defence budget was being raised to Rs.2,24,000 crore.

Under the "one rank, one pension" rule, retired soldiers of the same rank and length of service will receive the same pension, regardless of when they retire. Currently, pensioners who retired before 2006 receive less pension than their counterparts as well as juniors.

The mega announcement comes three days after Rahul Gandhi endorsed it after meeting a delegation of ex-servicemen last Friday.

"Rs. 500 crore will be transferred in 2014-15 for implementing the one rank one pension decision," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said today while making his interim budget announcement.

Mr Gandhi is expected to address a rally of ex-servicemen in Uttarakhand on Saturday.

The Centre had earlier followed Mr Gandhi's cue and raised the subsidy cap on cooking gas cylinders from nine to 12.

The "one rank, one pension" demand has seen many protests by former soldiers. Decorated veterans have returned their medals and some have gone on hunger strikes to campaign for it.

The defence ministry had often said in the past that granting one rank, one pension across the board is not financially viable as it would mean an annual spending of Rs. 1,200-1,300 crore more, besides arrears of up to Rs. 4,000 crore.

There are 14 lakh serving and 24 lakh retired military personnel in the country, which translates into a vote-bank of around 1.5 crore people, along with their family members.

Defence budget hiked 10 per cent, government accepts 'one rank, one pension' | NDTV.com

 

[trident2010]

Shame on congress, did this for vote .. gonna loose anyways !!

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Only $ 36.09 billion preliminary budget? The hike is in Rupee terms! Actually it has contracted - anyways would almost remain the same in terms of Purchasing Power Parity defence expenditure And no matter what they do they won't really win this time!

 

[veekysingh]

Only $ 36.09 billion preliminary budget? The hike is in Rupee terms! Actually it has contracted - anyways would almost remain the same in terms of Purchasing Power Parity defence expenditure And no matter what they do they won't really win this time!

U dont hv to calculate in usd terms. Cause we buy only 3-4 billion doller of arms or things from outside. So u can see almost 90% of money is spent whitin india and u calculate that in ppp terms u see its a lot of money.

 

[Indo-guy]

I am glad they have accepted One rank one Pension .....finally .

 

[VeeraBahadur]

FSB costs us 1,15,000 carores. ie. roughly 19 Billion $$.

 

[Contrarian]

Good decision.

Now we need One Rank One Pay.

 

[VeeraBahadur]

U dont hv to calculate in usd terms. Cause we buy only 3-4 billion doller of arms or things from outside. So u can see almost 90% of money is spent whitin india and u calculate that in ppp terms u see its a lot of money.

Wana just feel good ?? I am sorry I will have to burst your bubble.


Last year, from just Russia we imported arms worth 4.7 Billion $$ leave alone other countries.

Russia Sold $4.7Bln in Arms to India in 2013 | Defense | RIA Novosti

 

[kaykay]

Wana just feel good ?? I am sorry I will have to burst your bubble.


Last year, from just Russia we imported arms worth 4.7 Billion $$ leave alone other countries.

Russia Sold $4.7Bln in Arms to India in 2013 | Defense | RIA Novosti

Well he is not entirely wrong. Even make it $7-8 Billion/annum for foreign arms, still we have large money to be used in rupee term(wages, indigenous developments, research etc) so all in all 10% hike is a welcome decision.

 

[arp2041]

Wana just feel good ?? I am sorry I will have to burst your bubble.


Last year, from just Russia we imported arms worth 4.7 Billion $$ leave alone other countries.

Russia Sold $4.7Bln in Arms to India in 2013 | Defense | RIA Novosti

I think around 50% is for capital expenditure of which we have 80% of Import, so ya it's huge amount, close to $10 billions.

I am glad they have accepted One rank one Pension .....finally .

The problem is that all Govts. need a SLAP of elections to do what they SHOULD do.

 

[VeeraBahadur]

Well he is not entirely wrong. Even make it $7-8 Billion/annum for foreign arms, still we have large money to be used in rupee term(wages, indigenous developments, research etc) so all in all 10% hike is a welcome decision.

Nevertheless , any hike is welcome but do you really think is it enough , when foreign hardwares are escalating their cost in terms of $$ ??
Government is needlessly spending 19 Billing $$ on FSB like populist freebies .

 

[veekysingh]

Wana just feel good ?? I am sorry I will have to burst your bubble.


Last year, from just Russia we imported arms worth 4.7 Billion $$ leave alone other countries.

Russia Sold $4.7Bln in Arms to India in 2013 | Defense | RIA Novosti

The totel money for buy new goodies are just 65000cr rupee means 10billion doller, and whole world know india buy 70% from outside so its 7billion doller but angin thr has to be 30% offset so 2 billion doller gonna come back to india again. U can do the math.

Nevertheless , any hike is welcome but do you really think is it enough , when foreign hardwares are escalating their cost in terms of $$ ??
Government is needlessly spending 19 Billing $$ on FSB like populist freebies .

Thr should be no kind of freebies. But again Indian mango ppl would bend for freebies.

 

[VeeraBahadur]

The totel money for buy new goodies are just 65000cr rupee means 10billion doller, and whole world know india buy 70% from outside so its 7billion doller but angin thr has to be 30% offset so 2 billion doller gonna come back to india again. U can do the math.


Thr should be no kind of freebies. But again Indian mango ppl would bend for freebies.

Buddy 30% plough back(offset) is not applicable on every deal. What about FMS routes like C-130 , P8 , C 17 ?? And what about Russian HWs , till now never seen Russians ploughing back $$ to invest in India.For instance Recent 150++ Mi-17 V5s just came out of shelf, what offset did GOI got from buying AC or by leasing their Akula ?? . In Licence productions Russia doesn't invest even a penny. Implemention of offset clauses will take time.

 

[veekysingh]

Buddy 30% plough back(offset) is not applicable on every deal. What about FMS routes like C-130 , P8 , C 17 ?? And what about Russian HWs , till now never seen Russians ploughing back $$ to invest in India.For instance Recent 150++ Mi-17 V5s just came out of shelf, what offset did GOI got from buying AC or by leasing their Akula ?? . In Licence productions Russia doesn't invest even a penny. Implemention of offset clauses will take time.

Even wuthout offset. Its no more then 7 billion usd. So still more then 80% is used within india.

 

[VeeraBahadur]

Even wuthout offset. Its no more then 7 billion usd. So still more then 80% is used within india.

What was inflation this year ??I think it was near 6-7% so on real terms it's only 2-3% increment for within India, again half of which will be allocated to Newly implemented "OROP '' .So it leaves us with additional 2500 -3000 carore only.

It's shame budget for defence as Congress fully knows that most of electorate doesn't take defence budget seriously .