India lowers development aid allocation for Bangladesh by 40%

India has lowered its development aid allocation for Bangladesh in its annual budget for 2024-25 placed in parliament on Tuesday.

This year, the Modi-administration allocated 120 crore rupees for Bangladesh, which is down by 80 crore rupees from that of the previous budget.

A significant portion of the Ministry of External Affairs' (MEA) development assistance of 4,883 crore rupees for 2024-25 has been earmarked for countries such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Afghanistan and Myanmar.

Bhutan has emerged as the highest recipient of India's aid, receiving 2,068.56 crore rupees, less than last year's 2,400 crore rupees.

The provision is for India's multilateral and bilateral aid and assistance programmes to neighbouring and other developing countries in Africa, Central Asia, South Asia and Latin America.

Maldives, whose relations with India came under strain after the election of President Mohamed Muizzu, will get 400 crore rupees, same as last year, even though the revised budget for 2023-2024 showed a higher amount of 770.90 crore rupees.

Despite the anti-India protests and remarks from Maldives' top leadership late last year, which had set off a diplomatic row, India's investment in the Indian Ocean nation remained consistent.

Nepal is a big beneficiary with an allocation of 700 crore rupees, an increase of 150 crore rupees from the previous year's budget of 550 rupees.

Also, Sri Lanka with 245 crore rupees and Seychelles with 40 crore rupees got higher allocations this time than the previous year.

Afghanistan's allocation remains unchanged at 200 crore rupees.

The budget estimate for the MEA for FY 2024-25 is 22,155 crore rupees, more than 18,050 rupees crore allocated in FY 2023-24 but short of the revised estimate of 29,121 crore rupees for the same fiscal year.

As per the revised estimates for 2023-24, the Indian government provided 6,541.79 crore rupees to foreign governments, surpassing the budget estimates of 5,848.58 crore rupees for 2023-24.

The estimate for 2024-25 is 5,667.56 crore rupees.