# Parliamentary panel flags Rs 600 crore loss, idle small-arms factories 2026-08-14T01:52:46+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence report has revealed that India's small-arms factories suffered cumulative losses of Rs 600 crore between 2015-16 and 2025-26, with idle capacity and quality defects undermining viability even after corporatisation. Between 2015-16 and 2019-20, the armed forces accounted for just 10 per cent of offtake, leaving factories dependent on insufficient MHA orders. The committee found high overheads pushed up unit costs while issue prices stayed below actual cost, leading to Rs 366 crore losses before corporatisation and another Rs 234 crore loss at AWEIL in FY23-26. It also flagged recurring barrel bore chip-off, low rate of fire and breech-block defects, and noted that inventory worth Rs 641 crore was held as of March 2020, far exceeding the 135-day stock limit. The ministry has been asked to push institutional reforms, including multi-year demand planning and cost benchmarking against private firms. ## Coverage - indiatoday.in Tags: AWEIL, defence manufacturing, governance, Ordnance factories, parliamentary committee, Small arms Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/parliamentary-panel-flags-rs-600-crore-loss-idle-small-arms-factories/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/parliamentary-panel-flags-rs-600-crore-loss-idle-small-arms-factories/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.