Amidst Doklam standoff, Defence ministry demands additional Rs 20,000 crore budget

NEW DELHI: The ministry of defence has demanded additional Rs. 20,000 crore from the finance ministry to fulfil its critical requirements to meet the defence preparedness of the country, amidst stand off with China in Dokalam in Sikkim. However, the defence ministry officials have ruled out additional budget requirement as fallout of Chinese military face off and called this additional demand not " unusual". Last month, as tension on borders with Pakistan and China continue, the Centre had allowed the Army to make ‘emergency procurements,’ without going through the red-tape, to be prepared for a ‘short and intense war’. A notification issued by the government last week empowered Vice Chief of the Army to make hardware procurements up to Rs 40 thousand crore to meet critical deficiencies. Army has identified critical deficiencies in 46 types of ammunition and certain spares for 10 different types. According to MoD officials, defence secretary Sanjay Mitra told finance ministry officials in a meeting that the Rs 20,000 crore was urgently required in addition to the Rs 2.74 lakh crore allocated for defence in the 2017-2018 budget. And majority of the capital outlay is earmarked for "committed liabilities or instalments" for deals inked earlier. Un recent past PM Modi led government has made several deals to meet critical requirements of the armed forces.Incidentally, the Rs 2.74 lakh crore outlay works out to just 1.56% of the projected GDP, the lowest such figure since the 1962 war with China.