Budget: 25 per cent jump in allocation of funds to MEA

External Affairs Ministry has seen a jump of 25 per cent in its allocation of funds in the Union Budget 2014-15 with the maximum hike seen under the head of technical assistance and advances to foreign governments.
While the total fund given to the MEA in 2013-14 was Rs 11,793 crore, the current budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley provides for Rs 14,730 for the Ministry, headed by Sushma Swaraj.
The biggest jump in the allocation given to the Ministry was seen under the head of technical and economic cooperation with other countries and advances to foreign governments. Rs 9,434.82 crore has been alloted this year under this head as compared to the Rs 7,038.15 last fiscal.

This budget head caters to India's multilateral and bilateral aid and assistance programmes to neighbouring and other developing countries.
This assistance is provided to immediate neighbouring countries and also to the countries of Africa, Central Asia, South East Asia and Latin America.
It also caters for Aid for Disaster Relief and humanitarian aid. The provision also includes a Plan component for providing aid assistance to Bhutan, Myanmar and Afghanistan.

Aid to Bhutan, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited in his first foreign trip, has increased by 68 per cent to Rs 6,074 crore from Rs 4,109 last fiscal.
Except Bangladesh, all other countries have seen a rise in aid. In the budget today, Rs 350 crore has been proposed for Bangladesh as against Rs 580 crore last year.

Another important head called the Special Diplomatic Expenditure, has seen a higher allocation of Rs 1,596.01 crore from the 1,420 crore last year. This is for discretionary expenditure.
Allocation for expenditure on Haj has also been increased to Rs 5.28 crore from Rs 3.13 crore in the last fiscal.
While a Rs 450 crore aid has been allocated to Nepal, Rs 70 crore more than last fiscal, Sri Lanka has been allocated Rs 500 crore.
For Afghanistan, the budget allocates Rs 676 crore. This includes both Plan and Non Plan allocations and is Rs 27.76 crore more than 2013-14.
The budget also keeps Rs 1832.31 crore to cater to establishment expenses of Missions/Posts abroad. This is Rs 149.08 crore (8.9 per cent) more than BE 2013-14.