Destroying Brand Army - MoD Bureaucracy tries its Worst
TKanta Singh C/O Smt. Shakuntala Devi,
V.PO Bhadani, Dist. Jhajjar (Haryana)
To,
Shri Manohar Parrikar,
Minister of Defence, Govt. of India, South Block, New Delhi - 110012
Respected Minister,
This will be my nth letter to you which will go unanswered for reasons that may range from busy schedule of the Defence Minister of Republic of India to normal urge to ignore non-laudatory missives. Be that as it may, my confidence in your goodwill for the armed forces is still strong. Hence this letter which focuses on attempts of civilian bureaucracy on Ministry of Defence (MoD) to both misuse as also destroy Army's Brand Equity!
Indian Army, thanks to stellar performance of its Officers & Men, enjoys very high Brand Equity among the people of India. So much so that for citizens the term 'Defence' is synonymous with the 'Army'. Thus when Defence Minister tells the Parliament that during FY 16-17 Defence Budget of Rs.340922 Crores plus defence pensions of Rs. 82332 Crores, that is, Rs. 423254 Crore comes to 2.3 percent of prevailing Indian GDP, the Citizens feel that they have done their bit and now it is for the Army to ensure best possible defence of India. But when cohorts of the Bureaucracy of MoD including IDSA (a MoD Entity) claim that almost two-third of Defence Budget will be cornered as 'Pay & Allowances' by a bloated army, they are telling a lie which aims to simultaneously use army' brand equity to hides the fact that civilian element of MoD eat up 32 percent of defence budget and unfairly shift blame on the Army so that there is long term damage to its brand equity.
To nail this lie I have relied on data from official budget for FY 16-17 and C&AG report on MoD for FY 14-15.
Out of Rs. 340921.98 Crores defence budget for FY 16-17, the civilian element of MoD, with 5,85,000 sanctioned and 4 lacs in post, would walk away with Rs. 1,00,000 Crores (Rs. 91823 Crores plus 7000 Crores paid to civilians of MES by Services) as pay & allowances and out of Rs. 82332 Crores allotted for defence pensions, the civilian pensioners of MoD would take away Rs. 31500 Crores (including 30 percent hike on implementation of 7th CPC). Thus cumulatively the civilian element of MoD will consume 31.6 percent of defence and defence pension budget in FY 16-17. Similar situation has prevailed in preceding years!
On the other hand Army, Navy & AF taken together would get budget of Rs 249099 Crore in FY 16-27 and military pensioners would get Rs. 48800 (including OROP and projected 30 percent hike likely on implementation of 7th CPC). Thus the military as a whole will get Rs. 277899 Crores, that is, only 1.3 percent of GDP and not, repeat, Not 2.3 percent of GDP as the minister may have implied.
So far as the Army is concerned, during FY 16-17, it will get Rs. 152759 Crores as its share of defence budget and approximately Rs. 44000 Crores, (including OROP and 7th CPC), as pension of retired All Rank. Thus total money spent on the Army this financial year would be Rs. 196759 Crores, which is less than one percent of GDP!
Let me end by pointing out that during FY 14-15 at Rs. 5.27 lacs soldier was lowest paid employee in MoD while civilian employee of MES got Rs. 5.34 lacs, Ordnance Factory employee got Rs. 5.37 lacs, DRDO employee got Rs. 9.91 lacs and babu of MoD took away Rs.10.54 lacs.
I do hope you would be fair in your duties as Minister of Defence and place real figures of MoD spending in public domain so that cacophony of bloated army is concurrently accompanied by a debate on logic of having 5,85,000 sanctioned posts for Defence Civilian Employees. For example why do we have 12000 staff in MoD or what has been achieved by Rs. 15000 Crores spent on modernization of Ordnance Factories? Why is labour productivity of Ordnance Factories mare Rs. 14.1 lacs per head in FY15-16? Why do we need lac plus MES civilian employees when both capital works and revenue & maintenance are outsourced?
Thank you
Best wishes
Kanta Singh
V.PO Bhadani, Dist. Jhajjar (Haryana)
To,
Shri Manohar Parrikar,
Minister of Defence, Govt. of India, South Block, New Delhi - 110012
Respected Minister,
This will be my nth letter to you which will go unanswered for reasons that may range from busy schedule of the Defence Minister of Republic of India to normal urge to ignore non-laudatory missives. Be that as it may, my confidence in your goodwill for the armed forces is still strong. Hence this letter which focuses on attempts of civilian bureaucracy on Ministry of Defence (MoD) to both misuse as also destroy Army's Brand Equity!
Indian Army, thanks to stellar performance of its Officers & Men, enjoys very high Brand Equity among the people of India. So much so that for citizens the term 'Defence' is synonymous with the 'Army'. Thus when Defence Minister tells the Parliament that during FY 16-17 Defence Budget of Rs.340922 Crores plus defence pensions of Rs. 82332 Crores, that is, Rs. 423254 Crore comes to 2.3 percent of prevailing Indian GDP, the Citizens feel that they have done their bit and now it is for the Army to ensure best possible defence of India. But when cohorts of the Bureaucracy of MoD including IDSA (a MoD Entity) claim that almost two-third of Defence Budget will be cornered as 'Pay & Allowances' by a bloated army, they are telling a lie which aims to simultaneously use army' brand equity to hides the fact that civilian element of MoD eat up 32 percent of defence budget and unfairly shift blame on the Army so that there is long term damage to its brand equity.
To nail this lie I have relied on data from official budget for FY 16-17 and C&AG report on MoD for FY 14-15.
Out of Rs. 340921.98 Crores defence budget for FY 16-17, the civilian element of MoD, with 5,85,000 sanctioned and 4 lacs in post, would walk away with Rs. 1,00,000 Crores (Rs. 91823 Crores plus 7000 Crores paid to civilians of MES by Services) as pay & allowances and out of Rs. 82332 Crores allotted for defence pensions, the civilian pensioners of MoD would take away Rs. 31500 Crores (including 30 percent hike on implementation of 7th CPC). Thus cumulatively the civilian element of MoD will consume 31.6 percent of defence and defence pension budget in FY 16-17. Similar situation has prevailed in preceding years!
On the other hand Army, Navy & AF taken together would get budget of Rs 249099 Crore in FY 16-27 and military pensioners would get Rs. 48800 (including OROP and projected 30 percent hike likely on implementation of 7th CPC). Thus the military as a whole will get Rs. 277899 Crores, that is, only 1.3 percent of GDP and not, repeat, Not 2.3 percent of GDP as the minister may have implied.
So far as the Army is concerned, during FY 16-17, it will get Rs. 152759 Crores as its share of defence budget and approximately Rs. 44000 Crores, (including OROP and 7th CPC), as pension of retired All Rank. Thus total money spent on the Army this financial year would be Rs. 196759 Crores, which is less than one percent of GDP!
Let me end by pointing out that during FY 14-15 at Rs. 5.27 lacs soldier was lowest paid employee in MoD while civilian employee of MES got Rs. 5.34 lacs, Ordnance Factory employee got Rs. 5.37 lacs, DRDO employee got Rs. 9.91 lacs and babu of MoD took away Rs.10.54 lacs.
I do hope you would be fair in your duties as Minister of Defence and place real figures of MoD spending in public domain so that cacophony of bloated army is concurrently accompanied by a debate on logic of having 5,85,000 sanctioned posts for Defence Civilian Employees. For example why do we have 12000 staff in MoD or what has been achieved by Rs. 15000 Crores spent on modernization of Ordnance Factories? Why is labour productivity of Ordnance Factories mare Rs. 14.1 lacs per head in FY15-16? Why do we need lac plus MES civilian employees when both capital works and revenue & maintenance are outsourced?
Thank you
Best wishes
Kanta Singh
posted by Yogi at 8:55 AM
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