Article Posted on : - Jun 06, 2010

ISLAMABAD (PTI): Pakistan has hiked its defence spending for 2010-11 to Rs 442.2 billion (USD 5.18 billion), marking an increase of nearly 17 per cent over the spending for the past fiscal.

The "Budget at a Glance" document on Friday said Rs 442.2 billion had been allocated for "defence affairs and service".

Further details were not immediately available.

The total size of the budget for 2010-11 was Rs 3,259 billion, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh told parliament.

Though the Pakistan government had provided Rs 342.9 billion for defence in 2009-10, it allocated an additional Rs 35 billion earlier this year for expenses on anti-militancy operations and the acquisition of modern equipment to counter a perceived threat from India.

The government recently hiked the salaries of armed forces personnel and provided additional allowances to troops engaged in operations against the militants.

The Pakistan government has traditionally made defence allocations with the objective of maintaining conventional parity with India.

However, a crippling financial crunch had forced the government to balance defence spending and expenditure on development and welfare programmes.

In his budget speech, Finance Minister Shaikh noted that the security situation had not been totally brought under control despite recent gains made by security forces in their drive against militants.

He said the total expenditure of the government had been frozen to repay debts and to spare funds for development programmes.

He also said tax reforms would be implemented from October 1.