Finance
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced the Union Budget for the
financial year 2021-22, which included a total outlay of Rs 4.78 lakh crore for the defence sector.

Also Read | Union Budget 2021: Government proposes agri cess on petrol, diesel

With China posing
an ever-increasing threat on multiple fronts across India’s eastern borders, the
most prominent of which being the military standoff in eastern Ladakh since May
5, the Defence sector was expected to receive a major boost from the union
government.

There was no mention of the defence budget in Sitharaman’s speech, which lasted for over 1 hour and 48 minutes. 

As part of
the Rs 4.78 lakh crore announced for the defence sector, Rs 1.35 lakh crore is the capital outlay, and
Rs 2.27 lakh crore is the revenue head. Additionally, Rs 1.15 lakh crore has been allocated for pensions.
 

Also Read | ‘Disappointed,’ says Entertainment industry as no mention of ‘soft power’ in Budget 2021-22

Last year, the
Centre allocated Rs 3.37 lakh crore for the defence expenditure, which was 1.5%
of the GDP. There was a separate provision of Rs 1,13,000 crore for pensions, taking
the total defence outlay in the 2020 Budget to Rs 4.5 crore.

Thus, there
has been an increase of Rs 22,000 crores in the capital outlay for the financial year
2021-22 as compared to the current fiscal, which might hinder India’s ambitious plans for adding to its defence arsenal.