NEW DELHI: Belying the hopes of sportspersons in an Olympic year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reduced the allocation of incentives for athletes by more than Rs 400 million while presenting the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 on Saturday.
The amount has been slashed from Rs 1.11 billion to Rs 700 million at a time when the Sports Ministry has been talking up the medal expectations from the 2020 Olympic Games, to be held in Tokyo between July 24 and August 9.
What is even more disappointing is that the government has also cut the allocation to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) by Rs 1.15 billion from the revised amount of Rs 6.15 billion to Rs 5 billion. SAI is the apex national sports body of India responsible for the development of sports in the country.
Just a few of its responsibilities include managing the national camps, providing infrastructure and other logistics to the country’s top-ranked athletes on a regular basis.
However, the latest budget has given a substantial hike of Rs 291.42 crore to the Indian government’s flagship Khelo India Youth Games. The programme was started with the stated aim of developing a culture of sports at the grassroot levels of school and college. What is worth noting is that as per information available with SportzPower, a good 50% of the total allocation for this year’s Khelo India Youth Games was spent on the opening and closing ceremonies, which does not really spark confidence that Khelo India Games will achieve its stated objectives at least in the near to mid-term.
Another area Sitharaman has not addressed is the hope of industry players that tax breaks would be provided to schools and institutions that give out their facilities to neighborhood communities for sports. After all, it is through grassroots activations that a sports culture develops.
Offering his wish-list ahead of the budget announcement, Saumil Majmudar, co-founder, CEO & MD, Sportz Village had stated: “Sports has been an essential part of a child’s education and vital for the all-round development of children. While various government schemes constantly promote sports across schools and communities, GST rates for services that enable children to play and provide them holistic education are currently clubbed with luxury items and should undergo a much-needed revision. Moreover, in the current scenario, when there is a lack of safe play-spaces in many cities, schools are the only place where children have the opportunity to play. Therefore, tax breaks should be given to schools that give out their facilities to neighborhood communities for sports. These changes in the budget will help develop a healthier and fitter India.”
For the record, overall the government has earmarked a total of Rs 28.2692 billion as the sports budget for the next fiscal year, which is an increase of a mere Rs 500 million from the revised estimate of 2019-20.
