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In a major effort to support the Agnipath scheme, the Centre in Budget backed it with over ₹4,000 crore allocation besides handing out tax exemption to Agniveers on the amount received by them from one of the tri-services employer.
The latest budget has now conferred “Exempt-Exempt-Exempt (EEE) status” to the Agniveer fund, under the Agnipath Scheme 2022. Deduction, as per the budget proposal, in the computation of total income is proposed to be allowed to the Agniveer on the contribution made by him or the central government to his “Seva Nidhi” account.
Overall, the defence budget saw a 13.4 percent jump on Budget Estimate (BE) terms, increasing the outlay from ₹5.2-lakh crore to ₹5.9-lakh crore which among other things is expected to fund Army’s “aircraft and aeroengines” acquisitions for which ₹5500 crore have been fixed apart from upscaling infrastructure capacities around borders with China and Pakistan.
Agnipath scheme
Of the latest allocation of ₹4,266 crore for the Agnipath scheme, announced on June 14 last year to bring youth and tech-savvy workforce into armed forces, the highest of ₹3800 crore is earmarked for Army, followed by ₹300 crore for Navy and ₹166.14 crore for Air Force. This is in continuation to ₹453.40 crore the Ministry of Defence had paid to the armed forces to meet Agniveer recruitment expenses under the revised estimate for the last financial year. Training of the first batch of Agniveers, including women, has already commenced from late last year.
The increment for Agnipath scheme is reflected in the substantial increase of funds under the sub-head of “Defene Services (Revenue)“ at ₹4.2-lakh crore which is 16.67 percent more than the allocation of ₹3.64-lakh crore for 2022-23 meant to support establishment expenditure including for salary, transportation and others.
Self-reliance
Though Atmanirbharta or self-reliance in defence desired a greater push for research and development, the Centre has just handed out ₹869 crore more in this budget (₹12,850 crore) than previous year’s (₹11,981 crore). Major acquisitions for Navy and Air Force is also likely to be pushed for next year, after general elections. To ensure adequate funding of construction of road network and bridges especially along the Line of Actual Control with China in Arunachal Pradesh and Eastern Ladakh, the Border Roads Organisation’s (BRO’s) revenue budget escalated by over ₹800 crore to ₹4,162.75 crore in comparison to last financial year where it was pegged at ₹3,327.36 crore. Works amounting to ₹5,000 crore has also been attributed under Border Roads Development Board which is much more than ₹3,500 crore kept for 2022-23.
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