India has increased its annual grant assistance to Nepal for fiscal year 2021/2022. Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget in Parliament on Monday.
Every year, during its fiscal year budget announcement, the Government of India sets aside budget for its neighboring countries, its largest recipient being Bhutan.
This year, India’s aid as development assistance to its neighbouring countries as well as Africa and Latin America stands at IRs 7,100 crore.
Bhutan will be receiving maximum aid allocation in the budget this year too with IRs 3,004 crore while IRs 100 crore will be given to Chabahar port project in Iran.
Nepal will be getting IRs 992 crore (equal to IRs 9.92 billion or NRS 15.87 billion) in grants from India for fiscal year 2021/2022, according to India’s Ministry of Finance. The grant pledged by the Indian government for Nepal is the second highest among South Asian countries.
The grant amount has increased by Rs 1.79 billion in comparison to the same allocated for Nepal by the Indian government in the last fiscal year. Last year, the government of India had allocated Rs 14.08 billion.
Likewise, Afghanistan is getting IRs 400 crore, Maldives and Myanmar getting IRs 300 crore each and Bangladesh and Sri Lanka getting IRs 200 crore each while Mongolia was allotted IRs 2 crore.
