Further cuts to defense expenditures

[VCheng]

Army cannot absolve itself from the blame. In fact they are pretty much part of the problem if they would not allow country to be politically stable.

Please allow me to reframe that statement. The Army does benefit from political stability and thus it is in their interests to promote it. However, the problem is that they have determined themselves to be the sole arbiters of such stability and therefore cannot allow any processes outside their control to achieve such stability.

 

[Abdul Rehman Majeed]

Constitution should be amended to ensure that Military gets minimum 35% fixed shared of the budget and not be beholdened to the political class.

 

[VCheng]

Water under/over the bridge now...

Between his investments in Defense Savings Certificates and not taking his pension, that has been his give-back post retirement. #Going strong for Pak!

I will just say that his noble intentions are to be lauded, but it saved only the civilian head under pensions (military), and did not benefit his mother institution at all.

Constitution should be amended to ensure that Military gets minimum 35% fixed shared of the budget and not be beholdened to the political class.

Why stop at 35%?

 

[Rafael]

Please allow me to reframe that statement. The Army does benefit from political stability and thus it is in their interests to promote it. However, the problem is that they have determined themselves to be the sole arbiters of such stability and therefore cannot allow any processes outside their control to achieve such stability.

Yeah so they cannot blame anyone but themselves about these budget cuts. I fear it would be lesser still next year. I do not see the economic situation changing anytime soon. Infact only worse.

 

[VCheng]

Yeah so they cannot blame anyone but themselves about these budget cuts. I fear it would be lesser still next year. I do not see the economic situation changing anytime soon. Infact only worse.

They know that, I am sure. However, the economic situation can, and likely will, be stabilized relatively soon, and most likely in the run up to the next elections.

 

[Abdul Rehman Majeed]

Why stop at 35%?

I am not capping it at 35% rather that should be the minimum. Our military cannot become hostage to politics year after year. This is simply not acceptable.

 

[VCheng]

I am not capping it at 35% rather that should be the minimum. Our military cannot become hostage to politics year after year. This is simply not acceptable.

Why not cap the minimum at 66.67% or more? Why stop at 35%?

 

[Rafael]

They know that, I am sure. However, the economic situation can, and likely will, be stabilized relatively soon, and most likely in the run up to the next elections.

Before it crashes down once again due to consumption led 'growth'

 

[Acetic Acid]

Army won't give up their 300 billion rupees

Never ever

 

[VCheng]

Before it crashes down once again due to consumption led 'growth'

Well, in order to prevent that cycle from repeating yet again, fundamental changes are still needed, the kind that we have steadfastly refused to initiate for decades. Why start now?

 

[PakSword]

Army budget trimmed to pave way for IMF deal | The Express Tribune

Development programme slashed by Rs72b or one-fifth of allocation made on June 10

tribune.com.pk

So the number is PkR 293B ~ $1.4B.

This isn't an "army" budget, rather the entire Armed Forces capital acquisition budget. For clarity, this is the "capital expenditure" budget meaning this is what allows the armed forces to buy new equipment thus categorized as Armed Forces Development Plan (AFDP) funding. The remaining $10B in "defense budget" is used for upkeep, salaries, facilities, training etc.

As such, Pakistan will get to spend approx. $1.4B on capital purchases across the 3 services to try to keep its modernization efforts afoot. As can be imagined, in the overall scheme of things this is pittance.

"The original budget that the government tabled in the National Assembly on June 10 showed Rs363 billion allocations for the armed forces development programme. However, the budget provision has been reduced to Rs291 billion, according to the revised budget that the Ministry of Finance made public after its approval from the National Assembly."

I have seen it's one of the IMF's conditions (20% cut in Defense budget).

Don't know if that is related to the CAPEX cut.

 

[SD 10]

I am not capping it at 35% rather that should be the minimum. Our military cannot become hostage to politics year after year. This is simply not acceptable.

cap it at 2%!

 

[blain2]

Army won't give up their 300 billion rupees

Never ever

Its not for the army! Its for all 3 services.

I have seen it's one of the IMF's conditions (20% cut in Defense budget).

Don't know if that is related to the CAPEX cut.

IMF usually does not ask countries to cut down on specific heads. They ask for overall expenditures to be cut. Where you cut them is up to the host nation.

Do you have any specific document that you are referring to?

 

[Abdul Rehman Majeed]

cap it at 2%!

Proposal is minimum 35% of the annual Budget not GDP

 

[blain2]

Well, in order to prevent that cycle from repeating yet again, fundamental changes are still needed, the kind that we have steadfastly refused to initiate for decades. Why start now?

The funny thing is that all of our economic managers have known why the boom and bust cycles happen but nobody is willing to address them.

For the past 20+ years, it has been a matter of passing the buck. At one point in time, this would become a national security issue (and that time has kind of arrived). When you have no fiscal space to keep up your military readiness, then obviously all the stakeholders get worried.

I happened to read in one report that almost 60% of the defense acquisition spend was being managed with loans. So the debt servicing and increased oil prices are really taking a toll on everything including military readiness.