Pakistan Boosts Defence Spending For 2017-18 By $578 Million To $8.78 Billion

Pakistan will increase its defence spending by $578 million to $8.78 billion in the fiscal year 2017-2018, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told the country’s National Assembly, The Diplomat has reported.

This will constitutes a 7 per cent increase in the defence expenditure of Pakistan, which grew by 10.2 per cent in fiscal year 2016-17. Last year, Islamabad spent around $8.12 billion on defence. However, reports suggest that Pakistan uses up to 50 per more than the officially allocated budget on defence.

In addition to the increase in spending, the budget also gave every soldier a 10 per cent salary hike for contributions to defeating militants, Dawn has reported.

The lion’s share of the defence budget, up to 47 per cent or $4.17 billion, is used by the Pakistan Army, the most powerful institution in the country. The Pakistan Air Force uses up to 20 per cent or $1.8 billion, and the Pakistan Navy uses approximately 11 per cent of the defence budget or 940 million.

According to The Diplomat, 60 per cent of Pakistan’s defence budget is used in operations and expenses. Around 20 per cent or 1.87 billion will be used for military modernisation and procurement of new weapon systems.