Despite an ‘in-principle’ clearance from the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) last April, the defence ministry is still awaiting approval of the ministry of finance and the Cabinet Committee on Security for its 12th Five-Year Plan.
In April 2012, the DAC, at a meeting chaired by defence minister AK Antony, gave its nod for the 15-year Long-Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) that will end in 2027 and the five-year plan that will end in 2017, a defence ministry official said.
“The DAC considered the perspective plans of the defence forces at a meeting and gave in-principle approval to two important planning documents of the armed forces — The LTIPP 2012-27 and Five-Year Defence Plan 2012-17,” the official said.
According to officials in the ministry, the five-year plans are usually approved a year ahead of the Plan period. But in this case, the approval came a day after the Plan period had begun.
Explaining the procedure of clearance, officials told FE: “The country’s defence planning falls under the purview of the National Security Council, headed by the Prime Minister, and members of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) are there too. The defence plans, be it the Five-Year Plan or the long-term plan, have to go through the finance ministry before it goes to the CCS.”
They added: “These plans need the finance ministry approval as then only can they chalk out their procurement plans, as they get an idea what is the expected growth of GDP, what kind of funds the government would give. Based on all this can procurements be planned.” Now, due to the non approval by the Finance ministry and the CCS, several important military modernisation plans, are likely to get affected.
The unclassified version of the LTIPP will be promulgated in the form of Technology Perspective Capability Roadmap (TPCR) to enable the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Defence Public Sector Undertakings and the Indian industry to plan their research and development roadmap. While the LTIPP is a broad vision document, the 12th Defence Plan deals more in detail with the specific requirements and modernisation plans for the armed forces, as also projections for the allocation of resources for the modernisation and day-to-day functioning.
Concerns are being expressed by the defence ministry and the headquarters of the armed forces that the 12th Plan documents should not go the 11th Defence Plan way.
“It maybe recalled 11th Defence Plan that ended in March 2012 was not formally approved by the government and hence did not receive committed budgetary support. If the approvals had come and the budgetary resources were available, that would have enabled the three armed forces to work out their acquisitions, be it weapons or other military systems, in a systematic manner,” pointed out a senior official.