Skip to main content

India Government raises grant for Nepal by 17 percent

India Government raises grant for Nepal by 17 percent


The Indian government has pledged to extend 17 percent more in financial aid to Nepal in the next fiscal year, indicating greater enthusiasm of the southern neighbour to support the landlocked country’s development endeavours. The Indian government has allocated a grant of IRs3.75 billion (Rs6 billion) for Nepal in 2017-18, as against IRs3.20 in 2016-17. The allocation was made through the Union Budget 2017-18 launched by Indian Finance Minister Arjun Jaitely on Wednesday. 
In addition to the amount, India has also pledged to extend a grant of IRs113.30 million to Nepal Police Academy in 2017-18, the Indian budget document says. The grant pledged for Nepal in 2017-18 is second highest among South Asian countries, with Bhutan leading the pack. The Indian government has expressed commitment to extend IRs37.14 billion in grant to Bhutan in 2017-18. The amount, however, is 4 percent lower than in 2016-17. In total, India has expressed commitment to provide IRs49.34 billion in grants to South Asian countries, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, in 2017-18. The pledged amount is 2.5 percent higher than in 2016-17.
One of the South Asian countries that has seen significant jump in Indian grant commitment is the Maldives. At IRs2.45 billion, the grant pledged for the island nation in 2017-18 is three times higher than IRs800 million allocated in 2016-17. In addition to grants, India also extends soft loans to its neighbours generally at an interest rate of 1.75 percent. In Nepal’s case the interest has even been lowered to 1 percent.
Just this fiscal year, India pledged to extend Rs79.5 billion ($750 million) in soft loan to Nepal to support post-earthquake reconstruction works. In the last fiscal year, India pledged to extend approximately Rs33 billion ($330 million) in grants to Nepal to facilitate reconstruction works and construction of road infrastructure in the Tarai. In fiscal year 2014-15, the Indian government pledged to provide Rs9.1 billion in grant and Rs98 billion in soft loan to Nepal.
Although Indian government’s aid commitment to Nepal has stood at a higher level, actual disbursement has been falling since 2012-13. In 2012-13, Indian aid disbursement stood at $63.81 million, shows the Development Cooperation Report 2014-15, the latest released so far. This amount fell to $47.81 million in 2013-14 and dropped further to $22.23 in 2014-15, says the report. One of the reasons for the drop in actual disbursement is slow progress is projects funded by India. Some of the projects supported by India are cross-border rail line, integrated check posts, cross-border transmission lines, Arun III and Upper Karnali hydroelectric plants, Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project and Postal Highway, among others. Implementation of most of these projects has been sluggish.
To quell criticisms that India-funded projects in Nepal have failed to make desired progress, the two countries have recently formed an oversight mechanism to look into the matter. The mechanism held its second meeting on Monday. It concluded with both sides agreeing to expedite implementation of the projects.
Kamal Dev Bhattarai
The Kathmandu Post
02/02/2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elections to oppose regional politics: Chair Oli

CPN (UML) chair and former Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has said that the upcoming elections will vehemently oppose and respond to the regional politics and forces involved in disharmonizing the social cohesion. Speaking in a program organized to extend thanks to the volunteers, artists and media for their presence and support shown during the party's Mechi-Mahakali Campaign (March 4-18), leader Oli said so. He added that the people will answer those forces by giving a majority seats to his party from upcoming elections. Leader Oli further shared that the party will launch more effective programme in Province No 2 in near future. He added that the Madhesi morcha showed apolitical behaviors against UML during the campaign being intolerable due to fear of ending their illusion against the constitution and UML if UML launched effective and harmonious programs in Tarai. In another context, chair Oli shared that the attorney general suggested the election commission to touch
Post a Comment
Read more

House panel has decided 3 % threshold provision

State Affairs Committee of the Parliament has decided to impose a threshold of three percent and at least one seat under the First-Past-the-Post electoral system to secure seats under the proportional representation system. The committee meeting on Wednesday took the decision to impose the threshold. Earlier, a sub committee formed by the committee decided to impose 3 percent threshold in the upcoming parliamentary election to become national political party. According to the subcommittee member Rameshwor Phuyal, the 27th meeting of the panel decided to provision three percent threshold after the rigorous discussion.  "Any political party must secure at least three percent seat under the Proportional Representation (PR) category and at least one seat under First-Past-the-Post category to become the national political party," said Phuyal.  He hailed the decision of the 11-member panel as historic. The sub-committee was failing to endorse the Bill Related to Political
Post a Comment
Read more

One FPTP seat, 3pc PR votes necessary to become nat'l party

The sub-committee under the parliamentary State Affairs Committee has reached to a consensus on bill regarding the political parties on Wednesday. As per the provision, for any political party to be recognized as a national party they must secure at least one seat under first-past-the-post (FPTP) and three percent proportional vote. Committee member Ram Krishna Yadav informed that a meeting of the sub-committee held at Singha Durbar this morning forged a consensus despite objections from fringe parties. Nepal Workers Pheasants Party leader Prem Suwal, CPN-ML leader Aindrasindar Nembang among other leaders from fringe parties objected to the provision of securing three percent threshold on PR and one FPTP seat. Ekantipur 22/03/2017
Post a Comment
Read more