MoF declines 3% GDP allocation for defence
Context
The Finance Ministry has declined a recommendation from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence to have a fixed allocation of 3% of GDP for the Defence Ministry, a report of the Committee has stated
Rationale given by MoF
MoF said that since government resources come with definite cost, resource allocation is made among various competing priorities.
- Thus, defence expenditure as definite percentage of total government expenditure/GDP cannot be ensured considering the fact the resource allocations are made on need basis
- Also, rationalisation of the expenditure is the prime objective of the government while finalising the revised estimates during mid-year review
