Team News Riveting
Islamabad, June 10
The Pakistan government aims to spend Rs1.804 trillion (about Rs 1.8 lakh crore) on defence in next one year, which is around 13 per cent higher than the revised allocation for the outgoing year.
The defence budget of Pakistan, which is reeling under severe economic crisis, makes up nearly 1.7 percent of the GDP and 12.5 per cent of the total expenditure planned by the government for the next year, according to the budget documents for the financial year 2023-24.
Last year, Rs 1.57 trillion was allocated for defence affairs and services. However, it was later revised to Rs1.59 trillion.
As usual, the army got the lion’s share of Rs 824.6 billion (bn) of the total budget, followed by Pakistan Air Force Rs 368.5bn, and Pakistan Navy Rs188.2 bn.
Likewise, the pension of retired military officials also increased by 26 per cent to Rs 563 bn, from Rs 446 bn in the outgoing fiscal year. The military’s pension, however, is not included in the budget meant for defence services, while other defence-related procurements and strategic programmes are not itemised in the budget, including the budget for strategic nuclear arsenals.
Of the total defence budget, Rs 5.4 bn has been allocated for defence administration, Rs705 bn for employees related expenses, Rs 442 bn for operating expenses, Rs 461 bn for physical assets and Rs195 bn for civil works.
