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Does India need to reduce defense expenses?

Background India is number 9th in his spending on weapons. India spend 41.3 billion dollar each year on weapons. Which 2.7 percent of its total GDP. India increased its military spending by 17 per cent to $41 billion in the Union Budget 2012-13. Of this expenditure, $17.5 billion will be reserved for procuring new equipment. The hike comes a year after India had increased its budget expenses by 11 per cent. A cumulative outlook over the past two years shows that India has increased military spending by a third. The move is also seen as a way to counter China's 11 per cent defense spending increase just a few days ago. The capital expenditure of the armed forces that which goes towards purchase of equipment was set at around $ 17 billion, a 15.7 per cent hike from last year's capital allocation. 70 per cent of this amount will go towards servicing contracts already signed. The rest will be reserved for the procurement of new equipment, including procuring new aircraft from French company Rafale. The revenue component of the defense budget amounted to $21.67 billion. This part of the budget that goes towards paying salaries, was $18.15 billion in the budget estimate, but was $ 19.9 billion in the Revised Estimates, suggesting the services had overspent under this head.

Favor

We are a developing country we should stop spending on buying weapons and start spending money on the sectors like education. India has the world's 9th largest defense budget. In 2012, India's official military budget stood at INR 193,407 crore (US$38.58 billion). In 2004, the GlobalSecurity.org estimated India's budget to be around US$100 billion in terms of purchasing power parity. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), India has the lowest public expenditure on higher education per student in the world. During the Financial Year 2011-12, the Central Government of India has allocated Rs 38,957 crores for the Department of School Education and Literacy which is the main department dealing with primary education in India. Within this allocation, major share of rs. 21,000 crores, is for the flagship program 'Sarva Siksha Abhiyan'. However, budgetary allocation of Rs 21,000 crores is considered very low in view of the officially appointed Anil Bordia Committee recommendation of Rs 35,659 for the year 2011-12. So expense on defense system in 2012 would be 193,407 corore rupees whereas education expense is only 21,000 corore rupees it means defense expense is 10 times the education budget. The country like India where 25% of its population is still illiterate; only 15% of Indian students reach high school, and just 7%, of the 15% who make it to high school, graduate. According to the Census of 2011, "every person above the age of 7 years who can read and write in any language is said to be literate". According to this criterion, the 2011 survey holds the National Literacy Rate to be around 74.07%. We are not seeing any war in near future whole world is stable. Humans are smart enough to understand the bad effects of the war. If Indian government can focus on curbing down poverty, illiteracy, population explosion and corruption. India can be best nation of the world. Spending money on defense is not solution any of these problems. Government should start spend money on research and development of inhouse weapon development so India can become power itself rather depending on the other countries.

Against

India's aspiration for a regional power status and a key player in global affairs dictate the imperatives of independent, self-reliant indigenous defense capabilities. India is surrounded by many old and new enemies. So for the safety of its population we have to buy the weapons and this require big defense budget. It's easy to say spend all money on the education or to control poverty but the minute our security becomes bit weak so many security related problems will raise like terrorist attacks, kidnapping by local naxalites etc. For the safety of the big population we have to take security measures and for this defense expenses are must. There were so many attacks on common man of India in past that we cannot deny the security needs of India.

Conclusion

It's easy to say that India is spending more on defense but it is requirement of current time. There is just need of reducing corruption and controlling the flow of money to right direction so we can utilize the hard earned tax payer money in best way.

Should toll charges be scrapped?


Very recently there was a furore in Maharashtra after the MNS vandalized a poll booth in the city and asked the people of the state to abolish the toll tax. The party said that the poor road conditions were the major reason behind this decision. But this gave rise to a new debate about the legitimacy of toll taxes. Lets see if these taxes are reasonable or not:For 1. Toll taxes have no fixed time limit attached to it. There are toll booths in the country which are still charging the tax-payers after 20 years of construction. 2. Toll taxes are a double whamy as while we go through the highway as well as when we return we are charged with the same amount of tax; irrespective of the duration of visit. 3. There is no mechanism to ensure the quality of roads even after paying huge amount of money as toll tax. 4. Toll tax amounts to double taxation as the citizens already pay certain taxes to the government for infrastructure purpose. 5. The companies make toll taxes as an instrument to earn as much profit as possible which is not reasonable.

Against 1. Toll taxes are levied by various construction companies to provide better quality infrastructure of roads. 2. Such taxes are taken only for the benefit of the tax-payers. The ultimate profit of express-ways or highways is experienced by the public. 3. Because the expenditure involved in bulding roads is too high the government cant bear the whole expense as it can land the economy in huge trouble. So, citizens have to pay taxes. 4. The amount charged is not very high and the quantum of it is decided after agreement between government and the company. 5. Toll taxes are further utilized to maintain the built-up infrastructure of roads. Conclusion The fact that toll taxes have lost their purpose and become a tool to excavate money from the tax-payers is, to a great extent, true. But it can also not be denied that without levying such taxes high end infrastructure cant be made. What needs to be done is to fix a time limit upto which the tax will be levied and also create a regulatory body for monitoring the quality of infrastructure. Only then the ultimate benefit of such taxes can be shifted towards the tax-payers instead of the construction companies.

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