India Allocates $10.4 Billion For Defense Procurement in Fiscal 2016

Indian Defense Minister announced Friday that the government has allocated INR 70,000 Crore (US $10.4 billion) for defense acquisition for the 2016 fiscal year.

Manohar Parrikar addressing a press conference said that the total defense budget for 2016-17 was INR 341,000 crores (US $50 billion) allocated including defense pensions.

Excluding defence pensions, the budget figure is INR 259,000 crore (US $38.5 billion) which is 13.09 per cent of overall expenditure.

To a query on the purchase of Rafale fighter jets, which has been stuck over price negotiations with France, Parrikar said that the government had "kept adequate money for Rafale deal".

The minister said the anticipated spending was INR 66,000 crore (US $9.8 billion). He said it was for the first time that the defence ministry took stock of military sales through an account held by the US government and found that due to "ill-management of this account, slightly less than $ 3 billion piled up".