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India reduces assistance to Bangladesh for next fiscal year
March 1, 2007: India's assistance to Bangladesh for the next financial year has been reduced to 150 million Indian Rupees (about 3.52 million U.S. dollars) from 500 million rupees (about 11.36 million dollars) during the current year, the Bangladeshi news agency UNB reported Thursday.
The Indian government earmarked 500 million rupees for Bangladesh during this year under its Technical and Economic Cooperation Program with other countries. It was later revised and fixed at 200 million rupees (4.55 million dollars) as the country was going for the elections, which has been postponed indefinitely.
The assistance was announced by Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament Wednesday while presenting next year's budget.
The assistance to Myanmar and Bhutan has been increased substantially. Myanmar will get 800 million rupees (18.18 million dollars) in assistance, almost double than the last year.
Similarly, Bhutan will be able to get maximum assistance of 6.66 billion rupees (151.4 million dollars). Last year, the Himalayan kingdom received 5.64 billion rupees (128.18 million dollars) financial assistance from the Indian government.
The finance minister said the allocations reflect India's abiding interest in providing assistance to development projects in friendly countries. The assistance is not provided to only immediate neighbors, but also to Central Asian and African nations.
Sources: PEOPLE.COM