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The defence budget was increased to ₹5.94 lakh crore for 2023-24 from last year’s allocation of ₹5.25 lakh crore.
In the Union Budget presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, a total of ₹ 1.62 lakh crore has been set aside for capital expenditure that includes purchasing new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware.
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For 2022-23, the budgetary allocation for capital outlay was ₹1.52 lakh crore but the revised estimate showed the expenditure at ₹1.50 lakh crore.
According to 2023-24 Budget documents, an allocation of ₹Rs 2,70,120 crore has been made for revenue expenditure that includes expenses on payment of salaries and maintenance of establishments.
The budgetary allocation of revenue expenditure in 2022-23 was ₹2,39,000 crore.
In the Budget for 2023-24, the capital outlay for the Ministry of Defence (Civil) has been pegged at ₹8,774 crore while an amount of ₹13,837 crore has been set aside under capital outlay.
A separate amount of ₹1,38,205 crore has been allocated for defence pensions.
The total revenue expenditure including the pension outlay has been estimated at ₹Rs 4,22,162 crore.
According to the Budget papers, the total size of the defence budget is ₹5,93,537.64 crore.