New Delhi, India (BBN)-India has significantly slashed its aid in the form of grants and loans for Bangladesh in the new fiscal year which is almost 40 percent lower than the previous fiscal year.
Bangladesh is the only country in the Saarc region for which the budget has made lower provisions, reports Times of India.
The aid for Bangladesh in the current year budget has been Rs 350 crore against Rs 580 crore last year.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s engagement with Bhutan has helped the Kingdom nation with the grants and loans allocated to the latter going up by nearly 50 percent—from Rs 4,100 crore last year to Rs 6,000 crore this year.
Bhutan has always been getting significant financial aid from India by way of grants, both under plan and non-plan expenditure heads.
Comparatively, other countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) have got marginal hikes in grants from the Indian government this year.
Even Afghanistan, where India’s engagement has increased in recent years, has been allocated Rs 676 crore, not a big hike against last year’s Rs 525 crore.
BBN/ANS-15July14-12:30am (BST)
