The federal government on Friday earmarked Rs1.52 trillion for defence expenditure for the next fiscal year, slightly up from the preceding year’s Rs1.45 trillion.
The previous government had announced a defence budget of Rs1.37 trillion, or $8.78 billion, for FY 2021-22, which was revised last week to over Rs1.45 trillion in a bid to meet the needs of the armed forces.
The decision to increase the defence budget for the outgoing fiscal year by another Rs80 billion was made by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, which in total approved Rs182 billion in supplementary grants on June 3.
The government also allocated Rs2.232 billion for five ongoing and as many new schemes under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for FY 2022-23. According to a budgetary document released yesterday, an amount of Rs1,824.575 million has been allocated for five ongoing schemes of the Defence Division. Moreover, the armed forces did not demand any additional funds in the budget, as per the practice in the previous two years.
In addition to that, the armed forces declared every Friday as a dry day for the entire military to save fuel amidst the economic crisis, while no government transport would run except in emergencies on that day. The armed forces, once again, made a big decision to stabilise the economy amidst the challenges faced by the country and the rising cost of living. The Pakistan Army did not allow any shortfall in its military capabilities and pledged to ensure national defence and security with the available resources, official sources said.
