5% Cut Not For Defence Expenditure

Let us rejoice at the government’s consideration for the defence services. As per the finance ministry’s directive on austerity measures for the government, All non-plan expenditure heads excluding interest payment, repayment of debt, defence capital, salaries, pensions and the finance commission grants to states will be subjected to a mandatory 5 per cent cut.[IE] Does it really matter? After all, the unutilised amounts of defence expenditure for the tenth plan [2002-2007] were 14.46% of the total allocation. Chicanery, in its purest, unadulterated bureaucratic form…