Budget 2020: Indian aid to neighbours around Rs 5,000 crore; Nepal sees cut of Rs 400 crore

New Delhi: In the Union Budget 2020-21, the aid of India to its neighbouring countries for the Financial Year 2020-2021 stands at Rs 5,084.65 crore. This forms a substantial chunk of India's aid globally which stands at Rs 5,863.65 crore.

Bhutan continued to see maximum allocation in the Budget at Rs 2,884.65 crore with Afghanistan getting Rs 400 crore, Maldives and Myanmar getting Rs 300 crore each and Bangladesh and Sri Lanka getting Rs 200 crore each. Mongolia, which considers India its third neighbour got Rs 2 crore.

While three countries saw an increase in aid by India, four other countries saw a cut in Indian aid. Myanmar saw an aid increase of Rs 170 crore, Seychelles Rs 90 crore and Bangladesh Rs 50 crore. 

Nepal saw a cut of Rs 400 crore and will be getting an Indian aid Rs 800 crore as compared to Rs 1,200 crore in the revised budget of 2019. Mauritius, Maldives and Sri Lanka saw a minor aid cut of Rs 75 crore, Rs 26 crore and Rs 5 crore, respectively.

Overall, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) budget for FY 2020-2021 stands at Rs 17,346.71 crore versus revised budget for FY 2019-20 at Rs 17,372.27, which can be considered almost unchanged. An amount of Rs 150 crore, from the MEA budget, has been allocated for the maintenance cost of Air India aircraft for VVIP travel.