Culture, tourism see marginal increase in budget allocation

The ministries of tourism and culture saw a marginal increase of 1.82 per cent and 7 per cent respectively in the interim budget announced by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday.

While the funds for the tourism ministry was Rs 2,150 crore in the current financial year, it rose to Rs 2,189.22 crore in 2019-2020. The allocation for the culture ministry was Rs 2,843.32 crore in 2018-2019, while it has increased to Rs 3,042.35 crore for the next fiscal.

While there was no direct mention of the two ministries in Goyal's budget speech, officials said the travel and tourism industry would be benefitted by the sops to the middle class, especially the one on personal income tax, as it would increase the spending power of them for travel.

A total of Rs 1,448 crore has been allocated towards building tourism infrastructure, while Rs 506 crore has been allocated to promotion and publicity in the field of tourism.

For the culture ministry, an allocation of Rs 875.33 crore has been made for the central schemes and projects.