Pakistan to allocate Rs 1.45 trillion to armed forces in next budget, an increase of 6 pc

Islamabad [Pakistan], June 5 : Pakistan's defence spending is likely to go up by 6 pc in the next budget.
The armed forces are likely to be allocated Rs 1.453 trillion in the budget for the next fiscal year, which would be about Rs 83 billion higher than the outgoing year's allocation of Rs 1.37 trillion, reported Dawn.
This year a Rs 136 billion raise was expected after taking into account an average of 11.3 pc inflation for the outgoing year. Therefore, in number terms, the armed forces would be getting about Rs 53 billion less than what they say was needed for coping with inflation.
The impact of the defence spending is measured in two ways -- the share of the defence services in the overall budget pie and as a percentage of the GDP.
The share in the total outlay explains how much money is going to the armed forces. Meanwhile, calculating the defence budget as a percentage of the GDP indicates its burden on the national economy.
The defence budget, going by these figures, would be about 16 pc of total outlay -- much similar to the outgoing year. But, in terms of GDP, its share would go down from 2.54 pc in the outgoing year to 2.2 pc in the next fiscal year, reported Dawn.
The source said that the spending per soldier is about Rs 2.65 million per annum, reported Dawn.