By IRNA,
London : The net additional cost for the UK wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is set to reach almost Pnds 12 billion (Dlrs 24 bn) by the end of the current financial year, according to the latest figures released by Defence Secretary Des Browne.
In a written parliamentary reply published Wednesday, Browne revealed escalating costs for British tax-payers of the dual military operations reaching an additional Pnds 3.4 bn from the Treasury Reserve in 2007-08.
The annual cost to the end of March 2008 is more than double the previous year, when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) recovered Pnds 956 million for the Iraq war and Pnds 738 m for Afghan operations from the contingency reserve.
A breakdown of the figures, show that additional military expenditure for Britain’s deployment in Iraq reached Pnds 5 bn by 2006-07.
In Afghanistan, the net additional cost of the war until March last year was Pnds 1.6 bn, with the amount almost quadrupling since UK troops were sent to the southern province of Helmand in 2006 compared with the previous year.
This year’s costs of the dual military operations have yet to be calculated, but in the government’s budget for 2008-09, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling announced that it would be at least Pnds 2 bn.
On Monday, the Defence Select Committee criticized the MoD for excluding expected costs of the Iraq and Afghan wars in its annual Main Estimates, while revealing that for 2007-08 there had been a 50 per cent increase between last November and February this year.
In March, the committee also called on the MoD to account for the growing costs over the last three years despite deploying fewer troops, after previously accusing the government of waging wars without gaining parliament’s approval for the extra expenditure.
In a book last year, Joseph Stiglitz, former World Bank chief economist, and Harvard University lecturer, reported that UK costs of the two wars, was expected to rise to more than Dlrs 40 billion, including social costs, by 2010.