Article Posted on : - Jul 15, 2014

A file photo.

NEW DELHI (PTI): Notwithstanding a 12.5 per cent hike in defence budget taking the military spending for the year 2014-15 to Rs 2.29 lakh crore (USD 38 billion), India remains far below the Chinese allocation of USD 132 billion.

The analysis after the budget was announced last week suggests that the Chinese armed forces have got 3.5 times more allocation than their Indian counterparts for the year 2014-15.

The Indian armed forces got a budget of Rs 2.29 lakh crore from last years Rs 2.03 lakh crore.

Of the funds allocated, the Indian forces will spend Rs 94,500 crore on procurement of weapon systems while other amount would be used to maintaining existing assets and payment of salaries.

China had presented its budget in March in which raised its defence budget by 12.2 per cent to 808.2 billion yuan (about $132 billion).

In 2013, China had spent 720.197 billion yuan on national defence budget (about $117.7 billion), a 10.7 per cent increase from 2012.

The huge disparity in the budget allocation comes at a time when the two forces are building up their military capability along the over 4,000 km Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The Indian armed forces are focusing on building up capabilities in northeastern states.

The Army is in the process of raising an offensive formation-- 17 Mountain Strike Corps, to tackle the borders with China with its formations being set up from across Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.

The IAF has also raised its squadrons of Su-30MKI combat aircraft in the Northeastern states and is also upgrading old airfields to enable them for fighter and other aircraft operations.