The first budget estimate presented by the Ministry of Defence to parliament after the NLD took power is lower than estimates requested in the two previous fiscal years.
In 2017-18 Budget estimates, the Ministry of Defence asked for 2,905.195 billion kyats.
The total budget requested by Union-level ministries and institutions is 20,896 billion kyats, 13.95% of these spending is for the Ministry of Defence.
In his presentation to parliament, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Defence, Maj. Gen. Myint Nwe, said, “You will see our spending request for this fiscal year is less than the two previous fiscal years in our budget estimates.”
In his PowerPoint presentation, Maj. Gen. Myint Nwe said that spending for 2015-16 fiscal year by Ministry of Defence was 3,040.08 billion kyat and in 2016-17 fiscal year the spending of the ministry was 2,990.57 billion kyat.
In the breakdown of their budget estimates, the Ministry of Defence requested current account spending of 1,654.33 billion kyats for salaries and allowances, military hardware, logistics, engineering works, factories and workshops and military operations. The spending request for military operations alone is 4,203.57 million kyat.
Moreover, the Ministry of Defence asked for capital accounts spending for construction works, machinery and others of 1,250.865 billion kyats.
Maj. Gen. Myint New explained to parliament that the capital account spending estimate is 86.533 billion kyat less than 2016-17 fiscal year estimates.
The budget estimates of Ministry of Defence for 2017-18 fiscal year show is 73.111 billion kyat.
