NEW DELHI: A total of Rs 82,496 crore was spent on buying military hardware and weapon systems from foreign vendors in the last three financial years.
Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Defence, Subhash Bhamre, said the value of contracts signed with defence public sector undertakings between 2013-14 and 2015-16 was Rs 70,228 crore.
He said Government has taken a series of initiatives to achieve higher levels of indigenisation in the defence sector.
Bhamre said Rs 35,082 crore was spent on capital acquisition from foreign vendors in 2013-14, Rs 24,992 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 22,422 crore in 2015-16.
“A total of 342 licenses have been issued to 205 Indian companies for manufacture of defence items,” he said.
Though defence exports are covered under the Export and Import (EXIM) Policy issued by Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), he said Ministry of Defence has formulated a separate Defence Export Strategy to give a fillip to defence exports. (AGENCIES)
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