Aim to reduce dependence on foreign supplies: Manohar Parrikar

New Delhi: The government on Friday informed that it was working to boost indigenous manufacturing capacity to reduce dependence on foreign supplies, even as 40 per cent of defence procurement is still coming from abroad.

While replying to queries during Question Hour, defence minister Manohar Parrikar also informed the Lok Sabha that it would not be economical to manufacture certain defence equipment items within the country.

Mr Parrikar said steps have been taken to reduce the dependence on imports for defence equipment as well to have a proper infrastructure that would help in starting to export such equipment in the future. He also said export of defence equipment would increase over a period of time.

The total defence procurement was worth Rs 93,216.93 crore in 2013-14. Foreign procurement stood at Rs 38,202.66 crore, making for about 40 per cent of the total.

Out of the total, Rs 55,014.27 crore or 59 per cent of the procurement came from indigenous sources.

In 2012-13, indigenous sources accounted for nearly 64 per cent of the total defence procurement, which had touched Rs 83,090.18 crore.

At that time, procurement worth Rs 52,719.38 crore was from indigenous sources while foreign part was to the tune of Rs 30,370.80 crore.

Last financial year (2013-14), the United States remained the largest foreign supplier of defence equipment with procurement worth Rs 13,441.99 crore.

The US was followed by Russia (Rs 11,625 crore), France (Rs 4,575.32 crore) and Israel (Rs1,234.65 crore).

According to Mr Parrikar, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and defence public sector undertakings have been asked to increase procurement of indigenous content.

Responding to a query on intellectual property rights related to indigenous manufacturing of defence equipment, Mr Parrikar said foreign parts “cannot be made by way of jugaad (managed)” or some other way”.

To promote private sector participation in indigenous production of defence equipment, various steps have been taken including revision in list of defence products for the purpose of industrial licensing, the minister said.