Over Rs 17,800 crore allocated to MEA; hike in aid for Maldives, African nations

Over Rs 17,800 crore has been earmarked for the Ministry of External Affairs in the 2019-20 Budget, an increase of more than Rs 2,800 crore over the previous fiscal, with a massive jump in aid allocation for Maldives, Mauritius and African nations.

The total aid to countries has increased by about Rs 2037.79 crore, from Rs 5,545 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 7,582.79 crore in 2019-20.

Aid allocation for Maldives jumped from Rs 125 crore in 2018-19 to a whopping Rs 576 crore. As per the revised budget numbers, India spent nearly Rs 440 crore on aid to the island nation in 2018-19.

The aid to Nepal increased substantially from Rs 650 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 1,050 crore in 2019-20.

The aid for the strategically important Chabhar Port was slashed from Rs 150 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 45 crore.

A sum of over Rs 2,801.79 crore has been allocated for aid to Bhutan, a slight increase from Rs 2,650 crore earmarked for it last year.

The aid set aside for Afghanistan was Rs 400 crore, Bangladesh (Rs 175 crore), Sri Lanka (Rs 250 crore), and Mongolia (Rs 5 crore) for the 2019-20 fiscal.

The aid for Myanmar increased from Rs 280 crore in previous fiscal to Rs 400 crore.

The aid allocation for African countries more than doubled from last fiscal to Rs 450 crore in the 2019-20 budget. However, revised budget numbers indicate that India spent nearly Rs 330 crore as aid to African nations in 2018-19.

Aid to Mauritius also increased drastically from Rs 350 crore to 1,100 crore. The revised budget numbers indicate that India spent nearly Rs 660 crore on aid to Mauritius in 2018-19.

The establishment expenditure for the ministry was earmarked at Rs 5,487.26 crore.

The revised budget for 2018-19 showed that Rs 420 crore was spent last fiscal for maintenance of aircraft of Air India for VVIP travel.

The total allocation to the ministry in 2019-20 is Rs 17,884.78 crore -- an increase of Rs 2,873.78 crore over last fiscal's Rs 15,011 crore. The revised budget numbers for 2018-19 show that the ministry spent RS 15,582 crore.