India ($46.16 Billion for a fiscal year)
The Indian defence budget rose by 7.81% percent to $46.16 billion, against $43.59 billion in the previous year.
The Air Force will receive $5.58 billion to purchase new fighters and helicopter, while $4.5 billion will go toward maintenance and operational preparedness of its aircraft.
The Navy will receive $3.25 billion to purchase new warships and other naval gear. About $3 billion has been allocated for maintenance of the existing fleet.
Army will receive only $4.19 billion is allocated for the purchase of new military hardware.
Among the defence services, the Army has the largest share in the defence budget 2018-19. The Indian Air Force comes a distant second, followed by the Navy, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), and the Ordnance Factories (OFs).
Pakistan ($9.6 Billion for a fiscal year)
Pakistan allocates $9.6 billion for the defence budget. After adjusting salaries, it was revised upward to Rs 998 billion from last year’s value of Rs 920 billion. Additional Rs 100 billion will go to Armed Forces Development Programme (AFDP) as well.
The ratio at which the budgets of the three forces and the inter-services institutions are proposed to grow also gives an interesting read. The army traditionally gets the lion’s share of the increase, but this time around the navy has been given 21.4pc increase over the original allocation, followed by the army (19.7pc), Pakistan Air Force (19.5pc) and inter-services institutions (18.6pc).
Bangladesh ($3.45 Billion for a fiscal year)
Bangladesh unveils defence budget of $3.45 billion for 2018-2019. Placing the budget proposals at the Jatiya Sangsad here today, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said, “Capacity enhancing programmes for the army, the navy and the air force are also going on, Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) has been fixed on Bangladesh’s airspace and works to establish two full-fledged air force base of Bangladesh Air Force in Sylhet district is continuing.”
Further steps that are being taken to strengthen the overall security of the country are: establishment of weather observatories in 10 places of the country, modernisation of air monitoring system at the upper level and setting up of automatic weather observation system and establishment of wind profiler, preparing digital map with updated information and establishment of geodetic control network, establishment of National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), establishment of 2 tidal Stations and activities of Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) Survey in entire Bangladesh, Finance Minister said.BSS.
Myanmar ($1 Billion for Six-months Period)
Myanmar’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday asked for a budget of more than 1.3 trillion kyats (US$1 billion) for a six-month period—an amount higher than the combined total of the health and education budgets—as Parliament discussed the budget for a transitional period ahead of the 2018-19 fiscal year, which will start on Oct. 1. The Ministry of Defense made up 12.56 percent of the total budget proposal.
As the new 2018-19 fiscal year will commence from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019, the participatory budget was drawn up for the April- September 2018 period.
Deputy Minister for Defense Maj-Gen Myint Nwe told Parliament that the Defense Ministry is expected to earn 31.761 billion kyats in regular revenue; its capital expenditure is expected to be 611.087 billion kyats; its regular expenditure, 723.107 billion kyats; and total expenditure is, therefore, 1.33 trillion kyats for the six-month transitional period.
He told Parliament, “The money is used to implement plans to strengthen the structure of soldiers, weapons, equipment for the perpetuity of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Union.”
To compare the defence budgets for routine expenditures, the Defense Ministry asked for 609.627 billion kyats for the first half of 2016-17 FY, 827.149 billion kyats for the first half of 2017-18 FY, and 723.107 billion kyats for the six-month period in 2018.
Moreover, to compare the defence budgets for capital expenditures, it asked for 168.498 billion kyats for the first half of 2016-17 FY, 622.440 billion kyats for the first half of 2017-18 FY, and 618.017 billion kyats for the six-month period.
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