New Delhi, March 6: Defence minister A.K. Antony today said the armed forces need more funds for modernisation and the demand was not based on a competitive assessment of what other countries were doing.

The comments came a day after China’s finance minister Jin Reinqing announced that Beijing was hiking its defence allocation by nearly 18 per cent to $44 billion this year.

In the budget allocations last week, finance minister P. Chidambaram earmarked Rs 96,000 crore — or nearly $21.3 billion — for defence. The defence establishment was worried that this sum was barely enough to implement modernisation programmes.

“We want more. Because of various controversies in the last 10-15 years (there was a slowdown) and we have to modernise our army, navy and air force. But the finance minister has given a categorical commitment in the House that funds would be available for national security. I am satisfied with that,” Antony said here.

Asked if he was benchmarking India’s defence allocations against that of China, Antony replied: “We do not want to compete. We have to strike a balance between bread, butter and security.” India’s defence allocations rose by about 8 per cent from the budgetary estimates for 2006-07.

The Chinese finance minister yesterday said: “The increase will cover the cost of improving the army’s ability to fight a defensive war under hi-tech conditions.…”

India’s defence establishment could not spend the 2006-07 allocation. The revised estimates show about Rs 3,000 crore in capital expenditure are unspent.

“Every year, a small portion of the money is returned. I want to assure you that next year not a single rupee will be wasted,” Antony said.

Mulford plea

US ambassador David Mulford has said at the Indo-US business meet in Delhi that US defence equipment companies are ready with creative ideas for joint production and transfer of technology but India should provide transparency and a level-playing field.