Page 55 - The Indian EYE 081922

The Indian Eye
OPINION AUGUST 19, 2022 55

Defense Budgetary Reforms in India:

The Forgotten Agenda of the Government

Reforms are required as the budget can be an effective device to ensure optimum utilization

of the allocated resources for executing financially viable plans. Conceptually, achieving that objective
calls for reforms at the intertwined levels: micro and macro

AMIT COWSHISH not reforms, can produce that result. Presently, the defense budget is mismatch between the goals and the
But reforms are required as the divided into four DGs: Ministry of achievement, and remedial or cor-
ack of money is the root of all budget can be an effective device to Defense (Civil), Defense Services rective action required to be taken.
evil”, said Mark Twain. This ensure optimum utilization of the (Revenue), Capital Outlay on De- This needs to change.
Lis certainly true of India’s de- allocated resources for executing fi- fense Services, and Defense Pen- A half-hearted effort was made
fense budget and, if one may contex- nancially viable plans. Conceptually, sions. The Minor and Detailed Bud- in the Union Budget for the Finan-
tualise it, perennial lack of money for achieving that objective calls for re- get Heads within each of these DGs, cial Year (FY) 2016–17 when the
defense is also what often triggers the forms at the intertwined levels: micro especially the first three, are far too number of MoD’s DGs were reduced
debate on budgetary reforms. For and macro. many to be captured here. Broadly from eight to four, as enumerated
many analysts, these reforms are a speaking, the funds are earmarked above. It was claimed at the time that
means of addressing the Twainian At the micro level, the struc- for salaries, stores, transportation, “With a view to provide [sic] a holis-
evil. Somewhere in a corner of their maintenance works, miscellaneous tic picture of budgetary allocations
hearts they nurture the hope that ture of the Demands for Grant expenditure, and various categories and effective expenditure monitor-
appropriate reforms will make more (DG) of the Ministry of Defense of capital expenditure that include ing, some Demands for Grants in a
money available for spending. This acquisition of land and assorted de- Ministry have been merged into oth-
seems quite unlikely, though. (MoD) merits a review, primarily fense equipment, and development er Demand for Grants of the Minis-
Looking at the extent of mis- to give an outcome-orientation of civil infrastructure. try/Department”.
match between the requirement pro- Thanks to this archaic structure, It was also claimed that, “For ef-
jected by the Services and the funds to the defense budget. The term it is well-nigh impossible to evaluate fective outcome-oriented monitoring
allocated every year, the defense out- ‘structure’ refers to the way the the outcomes of the budgetary allo- of implementation of programmes
lay will have to be doubled—a virtu- cation. Consequently, the efficacy of and schemes/projects and to ensure
al impossibility, to meet the armed overall defense budget is divided defense outlay is generally evaluated optimum utilization of resources, a
forces’ expectations. As the Ameri- into four DGs and how the funds through the prism of allocation and comprehensive exercise to rational-
can cartoonist, humourist, and jour- utilization of funds, with very little in- ize Plan and Non-Plan schemes of
nalist, Frank McKinney Hubbard, are then sub-divided into sever- stitutionalized focus on the outcomes all Ministries and Departments has
better known as Kin Hubbard, fa- al ‘Major’, ‘Minor’, ‘Sub’ or ‘De- intended to be achieved from the been undertaken. The existing pro-
mously said, “The safe way to double annual budgetary outlay, the actual grammes and schemes have been
your money is to fold it once and put tailed’ Budget Heads. achievement at the end of the year, reorganized into outcome-based
it in your pocket”. Only magic, and identification of the reasons for the Continued at next page... >>

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