The salary and pension and the revenue expenditure put together is more than the money available to buy new weapons systems this year.
Highlights
- 11-member committee asked to identify areas to 'rationalize manpower'
- The pension bill is 82,332 crore, about 12,000 crore more than last year
- One of the casualties of this fund crunch is the Mountain Stike Corps
At 1.5 million strong, the Indian military is the third largest military in the world. But now, it could go in for "right sizing" of "force structure" or in simple terms a drastic cut in manpower. An 11 member committee led by Lieutenant General DB Shekatkar (retired) has been constituted for this.
Sources told NDTV that the committee - which will submit its report by August - has been tasked to look into areas of "overlap" and convergence within the three forces - Indian Army, Navy and Air Force - allowing for a reduction of manpower.
The committee has been also asked to identify areas to "rationalize manpower", examine possible areas of multi-tasking by troops. Finally, the committee will also suggest ways to "optimize" the combat potential by induction of more technology as against more boots on the ground.
The exercise, in part, has been necessitated by a burgeoning revenue, pension and salaries bill. This year the pension bill is a staggering Rs 82,332 crore, about Rs 12,000 crore more from the last financial year. The salary and pension and the revenue expenditure put together is more than the money available to buy new weapons systems this year. And, the rising trend in revenue expenditure is only likely to increase in the coming years.
"If my memory serves me right in 1982, the pension bill was about 300 crore, in 1992 it went up to 12,000 crore and last year (2015-16) the same pension bill stood at about 60,000 crore," Amit Cowshish, a former but one of the most respected Defence Accounts Officer told NDTV.
"Every year there is a huge gap in amount asked for and amount allocated. I don't think it is possible to sustain the growth (in allocation) which is expected by MoD," he said.
One of the casualties of this fund crunch is the Mountain Stike Corps - aimed countering any aggression from China. About 80,000 more men are to be added and it is likely to cost over Rs 60,000 crore. "At this rate you can forget the Cyber Command, the Space Command and the main problem with the Mountain Strike Corps is paucity of funds" Mr Cowshish added.