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Rs 1,583-crore aid to foreign govts
Our Bureau
New Delhi
,
Feb. 3
WHILE the Vajpayee Government is going the whole hog with the India Shining campaign, the Union Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, has made a provision of Rs 1,583.52 crore for assistance to other countries in the form of grants and loans in the Interim Budget for 2004-05. This is 9.48 per cent less compared to 2003-04 Budget's revised figure of Rs 1,749.28 crore.
Out of this, Rs 725 crore is planned expenditure of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), while another Rs 575.02 crore has been provided from MEA's non-Plan expenses and the remaining Rs 281 crore will be accounted from the non-planned expenses of the Finance Ministry.
The Interim Budget presented on Tuesday provides for Rs 1,159.13 crore as grants to more than 20 countries and another Rs 424.39 crore as loans to various foreign Governments. Another Rs 231.41 crore has been provided to meet various international obligations such as contribution to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations (UN) annual budget and various other UN organisations, SAARC, G-15 etc. taking the total to Rs 1,814.93 crore.
The single largest beneficiary is Bhutan with an allotment of a whopping Rs 244 crore as grants followed by Africa which too has been allotted a sum of Rs 64.54 crore as grants alone.
Nepal too has been provided for with a grant of Rs 59.20 crore and a loan of Rs 1 lakh.
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