Pakistan to increase defence budget to Rs.443 bn
May 10th, 2010 - 7:30 pm ICT by IANS
Islamabad, May 10 (IANS) Pakistan has decided to increase its defence budget for fiscal 2010-11 by Rs.100 billion ($1.2 billion) to Rs.443 billion due to the additional expenditure caused by the war against terrorism, a media report Monday said.
The effective increase, however, will be only Rs.65 billion as the government had sanctioned an additional Rs.35 billion over the Rs.343 billion that had been allocated for fiscal 2009-10 that ends June 30, the SAMAA private TV channel reported.
It quoted an official document as saying that the increase in the defence budget was necessitated by the increase in the salaries and allowances of armed forces personnel and for purchasing new equipment.
The budget for fiscal 2010-11 is expected to be presented in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, in the first week of June.
Pakistan’s armed forces have been in action for over a year now against the Taliban in the country’s restive northwest.
The operations began in the Lower Dir area of the North West Frontier Province, now renamed Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, in April 2009 and then spread to Upper Dir, Buner and the Swat Valley.
Within six months, the military had managed to push the militants into their strongholds in South Waziristan and the focus shifted to this region in October 2009. The military is now preparing to go into the North Waziristan region.
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- Pak defence budget to be raised by 31 percent in 2010-11 - May 22, 2010
- Pak cuts Rs 65 billion from proposed allocation for war on terror - May 25, 2010
- Trial of 3,000 militants begin Aug 1 in Pakistan - Jun 09, 2010
- Pakistan's budget for 2010-11 to be presented Saturday - Jun 04, 2010
- 11 percent hike in defence budget to push modernisation (Second Lead) - Feb 28, 2011
- Pakistan defence budget hike will inflame sentiments: daily - May 11, 2011
- Pranab confident of reducing fiscal deficit to 4.6 percent - Mar 02, 2011
- Pakistan wants to buy more F-16 fighter jets - Mar 10, 2011
- Budget promises more money for all - farmers to corporates (Third Lead) - Feb 28, 2011
- Pak's annual defence expenditure expected to exceed budgetary allocation - Nov 27, 2010
- Pak govt. mulling 100-billion rupee increase in defence budget - May 11, 2010
- India's defence allocation for 2010-11 raised to Rs.147,344 crore (Second lead, superseding previous story) - Feb 26, 2010
- Defence budget hiked to Rs.1.54 lakh crore - Feb 28, 2011
Tags: armed forces, bn, buner, defence budget, frontier province, house of parliament, militants, national assembly, north waziristan, north west frontier, official document, private tv channel, restive northwest, salaries, south waziristan, strongholds, swat valley, taliban, war against terrorism, waziristan region