India has increased its annual grant to Nepal by 12.72 percent.

The Indian government through its union budget for fiscal year 2021-22 allocated IRs9.92 billion [Rs15.87 billion] to Nepal.

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget in Parliament on Monday.

The grant pledged by the Indian government for Nepal is the second highest among South Asian countries. It is, however, lower than what India had provided to Nepal in 2019-20.

In 2019-20, Nepal received IRs11.98 billion [Rs19.16 billion] grant from the southern neighbour, which was significantly reduced by 26.54 percent to IRs8.80 billion [Rs14.08 billion] in 2020-21.

Like in past years, Bhutan stood at the top of countries receiving Indian grants. According to grants and loans to foreign governments under the Finance Ministry expenditure profile for 2021-22, Bhutan has been allocated financial assistance of IRs30.04 billion.

Of the total financial assistance portfolio to Bhutan, IRs21.24 billion has been allocated as grant and IRs8.80 billion as loan.

India has also significantly increased its financial support to Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Allocation for Sri Lanka has been increased to IRs2 billion in 2021-22 from IRs750 million in 2020-21.

Financial support for Maldives has been increased to IRs2.50 billion in 2021-22 from IRs1.75 billion in 2020-21.

In a significant departure from the tradition, this year’s Indian budget was not printed and was only made available in a digital format.