New Delhi (NVI): Around Rs 70,000 crore of the capital expenditure in defence budget worth Rs 1.35 lakh crore will be reserved for domestic procurements, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said today while addressing a webinar on “Budget Announcements 2021-22”.
“My Ministry has planned to invest, about 63% of the outlay for 2021-22 on domestic procurement, i.e. about Rs.70221 Crore for domestic defence procurement during for 2021-22,” the Defence Minister’s office quoted him as saying, in a tweet.
Rajnath said this increase will have a positive impact on enhanced domestic procurement, having multiplier effect on our industries including MSMEs and start-ups. “It would also increase the employment in defence sector,” he added.
During his address, Rajnath Singh said that the Defence Ministry will soon issue a second negative list of items which can only be procured locally by the Services.
Speaking at the webinar organised by Department of Defence Production and Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers, Rajnath said that the Centre will make efforts to complete the pending defence acquisitions within 2 years.
While speaking on the ongoing efforts to promote private participation in the defence sector, the Defence Minister also mentioned that in the last 6 years, the Central government has bought many reforms.
“The GoI has brought many reforms in last 6 (six) years. There is a clear focus of the Government on ‘Ease of Doing Business’ to encourage foreign OEMs, to set up manufacturing units in India, develop Joint Ventures and promote private participation in defence sector,” Rajnath was quoted as saying by his office, in a tweet.
The Raksha Mantri further said that the Defence Budget has seen an unprecedented increase of 18.75% in capital outlay, over the last year, and 30% over the year before, which is the highest in the last 15 years.
He said that the Ministry of Defence has set a target to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,75,000 Crores (US$ 25 Bn) including export of Rs. 35,000 Crores (US$ 5 Bn) in Aerospace and Defence goods and services by the year 2024.
“Recently, orders for 83 indigenously designed and developed LCA MK1A worth Rs 48000 crore have been awarded to HAL. The contract for indigenously designed Light Combat Helicopter is likely to be signed soon,” he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also addressed a webinar on effective implementation of Budget provisions in defence sector today and said that India’s defence sector is moving ahead with transparency, predictability and ease of doing business.
He said that emphasis is being given to enhance manufacturing capacity in defence sector.
-ARK
