Budget 2020: Indian aid to neighbouring countries stands at around 5,000 crore; Nepal sees a cut

India's aid to the neighbouring countries for the financial year (FY) 2020-2021 stands at Rs 5084.65 crore. This forms a substantial chunk of India's aid globally which stands at Rs 5863.65 crore. 

Bhutan continued to see maximum aid allocation in the budget today at Rs 2884.65 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 and a spiritual one was allotted Rs 2 crore.

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While three countries saw an increase in aid by India, four countries saw a cut in Indian aid. Myanmar saw an aid increase of Rs 170 crore, Seychelles received an increase of Rs 90 crore while Bangladesh's was an increase of Rs 50 crore. 

Nepal saw a cut of Rs 400 crore and will be getting Rs 800 crore as financial aid from India as compared to Rs 1200 crore in the revised budget of last year. One of the major reasons was that funds from the previous allocation was still left. Nepal was allocated around 763 crore in FY 2018-19 and last FY saw a substantial allocation of Rs 1200 crore.

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Mauritius, Maldives and Sri Lanka saw a minor aid cut of Rs 75 crore, Rs 26 crore and Rs 5 crore, respectively. 

Overall, the Union Budget for the financial year 2020-2021 stands at Rs 17346.71 crore versus the revised budget for the financial year 2019-20 at Rs 17372.27 crore, which can be considered almost unchanged. Rs 150 crore, from the MEA budget, has been allocated for the maintenance cost of Air India aircraft for VVIP travel.