The Center’s push to encourage the acquisition of indigenous military equipment, coupled with strict non-deviation guidelines, has seen the armed forces spend 64% of their capital outlay for RE 2021-22 on indigenous equipment.
In the same vein, they also made a last-minute push to utilize their capital outlay allocations for the year after it emerged in last month’s reviews that the Army may have to surrender close to Rs 1000 crore.
As ET has learned from reliable sources, the purchase is in line with the government policy to increase the proportion of indigenous equipment over imported equipment, aiming to eventually stop imports.
Compared to the IAF and Navy, the Indian Army invested over 72% of its funds on India-made purchases, yet the army’s expenditure on India-made purchases was relatively less efficient.
The total defence capital outlay in RE 2021-22 was Rs 1,13,717.58 crore. The indigenous to imports ratio was about 64:36. The source went on to say that the goal was to raise the budget by around Rs 1,17,400 crore with a clear commitment to target a 68:32 ratio of indigenous to imported goods.
