India to spend Rs 150 crore on Chabahar port

India will spend Rs 150 crore on the strategic Chabahar port in Iran, Rs 50 crore more than in last fiscal, apart from giving Rs 6,479 crore in aid to other countries.

All this will flow out of the External Affairs Ministry's budget outlay of Rs 14,798 crore.

A commercial contract for the development and operation of Chabahar Port was signed between India, Iran and Afghanistan last year in Tehran during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit. The allocation for the port made a debut in last year's revised budget.

The international aid allocation for the next financial year is Rs 6,479 crore whereas in the last fiscal the revised budget was Rs 5,939.90 crore.

Bhutan, the biggest beneficiary of Indian foreign aid, will get Rs 3,714 crore with Rs 1,630 crore earmarked for capital expenses.

The allocation for the year is Rs 153.77 crore less than last year's revised allocation of Rs 3,867.90 crore.

India's aid to Nepal for next fiscal is Rs 375 crore, Rs 55 crore more than last year.

Afghanistan will get Rs 350.00 crore. There has been a deep dive in the Indian support to Afghanistan. In 2015-16, Rs 880.44 crore was spent in Afghanistan. This fell to Rs 315 crore in the revised budget of 2016-17.

India will send Rs 330 crore in aid to African countries.

India runs multilateral and bilateral aid and assistance programmes for its neighbouring and other developing countries.

This assistance is provided to immediate neighbouring countries and also to countries of Africa, Central Asia, South Asia and Latin America.

It also caters for aid for disaster relief and humanitarian aid. The provision also includes aid assistance to Bhutan, Myanmar and Afghanistan.

In comparison with last year's revised estimate, the Ministry will have additional Rs 1,372 crore to spend.

The capital budget for the next fiscal is Rs 2,150 crore, Rs 302.36 crore more than last fiscal's revised capital budget of Rs 1,847 crore.

--IANS

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