The last budget of the BJP-led government before the general elections, announced by the Union minister Piyush Goyal said that for the first time the centre has increased the Defence Budget to over Rs. 3 lakh crore.
Mr Goyal, who was filling in for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who is in the US on a medical trip said if needed for border security, the government will provide additional funds for defence.
The Union minister stated that “Our soldiers protect the country on the borders and they are our pride. We have allocated more than Rs. 3 lakh crore in this budget for securing our borders, which is the highest so far. If necessary, additional funds would be provided.”
“In our Election Manifesto, we had promised to implement One Rank One Pension (OROP). This was pending for the last 40 years and has been resolved by us. The previous governments announced it in three budgets but sanctioned a mere Rs 500 crore in 2014-15 Interim Budget; in contrast, we have already disbursed over Rs 35,000 crore after implementing the Scheme in its true spirit,” the Interim FM said today.
While targetting the previous UPA government he said that the UPA had allocated only Rs. 500 crore for the purpose. He said, “While the Congress governments only put the OROP promise in the budget thrice, we have implemented it.”
In the last fiscal, the Defence Budget allocated was Rs. 2,95,511 crore.