In the Rajya Sabha on Monday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched a sharp rebuke at the Congress, arguing that the party had never treated defence funding as a priority while it was in power.
Speaking on the floor, she recalled that former Defence Minister A.K. Antony had once told Parliament, “I can’t buy these defence equipment because I don’t have the money,” and used that to illustrate Congress’s inadequate focus on the military budget.
Sitharaman went on to dramatise how the armed forces suffered under the former government, noting that soldiers had been without proper snow boots for high‑altitude deployments and that the Army was often short of ammunition—citing a 2013 CAG report that some types of ammunition had only enough stock for ten days of a hard‑fought war.
She contrasted this with the Modi administration, which she said has put defence at the top of its agenda. Under Modi, the government ordered fresh ammunition, replaced obsolete stocks, supplied bullet‑proof vests, and pushed domestic production of military hardware to reduce imports. She added that India now exports roughly ₹25 000 crore worth of defence equipment.
The minister also addressed the “Health Security se National Security Cess Bill, 2025.” She said the cess would generate a reliable revenue stream to both improve public health and shore up military readiness, and that it would be levied only on demerit goods, sparing essentials.
She emphasised that in an era of rapidly evolving warfare—characterised by precision weapons, autonomous systems and space assets—steady, capital‑intensive spending is essential. The government recognises health as a state subject, therefore it will share the cess revenue with the states.
She reminded the house that under the old GST regime, sin or demerit goods attracted both GST and an additional compensation cess, which could bring the total tax burden up to 88 percent in some cases. With the new generation of GST, the compensation cess has been removed, leaving GST alone capped at 40 percent.
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