NEW DELHI: The Union budget for 2018-19, presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley Thursday, had some cheer for the Sports Ministry as its overall allocation was increased by Rs 2.582 billion to Rs 21.9636 billion, up from the Rs 19.3816 billion earmarked last year.
However, one distinct feature of this year’s sports budget is the reduced funding allocated to the Sports Authority of India (SAI), with the maximum financial assistance going instead to the government’s Khelo India project.
SAI had received Rs 4.9573 billion in the financial year 2017-18, but this year the allocation has been reduced to Rs 4.2956 billion, a cut of Rs 661.7 million, PTI reports.
As for Khelo India, this year Rs 5.2009 billion has been allocated, as against the Rs 3.5 billion that was earmarked in the previous fiscal. Khelo India accounts for 23.67 per cent of the total sports budget this year.
Khelo India is one of the subsidiary parts of the composite Khelo India – National Programme for Development of Sports – under which a total of Rs 12.6279 billion has been earmarked, a sharp increase from Rs 10.4719 provided last year, the newswire reports.
Meanwhile, the budgetary assistance for the enhancement of sports facility in Jammu and Kashmir has been reduced to Rs 500 million from previous financial year’s Rs 750 million.
While there is no specific mention of budgetary assistance for athletes, who are preparing for the upcoming Commonwealth and Asian Games, the finance minister announced an increase of nearly Rs 400 million for the various national sports federations (NSFs).
In the previous year (2017-18), NSFs received a total of Rs 3.0218 billion. This year, it has been increased to Rs 3.42 billion – an increase of Rs 418.2 million.
In related news, the National Sports Development Fund’s (NSDF) allocation remained static at Rs 20 million while contribution to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) remains at Rs 10 million.
The allocation for incentives to sportspersons has been increased from Rs 181.3 million (2017-18) to Rs 230 million for the year 2018-19.
The scheme of Human Resource Development in Sports saw a cut by 50 per cent from Rs 100 million to Rs 50 million.
