When the finance minister of the country says “I rise to present the budget for the financial year …” everyone expects something or the other for their good with people related to sports being no exception. This budget was an interim budget and had the obligations of an interim budget. Goes without saying that the government tries to lure every sphere of the society through the last budget and this can be seen in the field of sports also.
The sports budget has been increased by Rs 214.20 cr and has now reached to Rs 2216.92 cr in 2019-20 from 2002.72 cr in 2018-19, including a significant hike in the fund of SAI (Sports Authority of India), NSDF( national sports development fund) and the corpus for giving incentives to players. Although this increase is very less in comparison to what others are doing. Case in point Ghana has increased its sports budget by 33% this year. China increases its sports budget by 6 per cent annually which is a very high increase considering their total allocation to sports is more than 336 billion Yuan.
Never the less, SAI whose budget was cut last year has been compensated this time with an increase of Rs 55 cr and has now reached a total of 450cr. The increase in incentives of sportsmen has also been increased to RS 89cr from 63cr. However, the assistance to National Sports Federations (NSFs) has been slashed slightly from Rs. 245.13 cr to Rs. 245 cr. The overall encouragement and awards to sportspersons have been increased by Rs. 94.07 cr. The previous allocation stood at Rs. 316.93 cr and will now be Rs. 411 cr.
A major focus this year has also been the much touted KHELO INDIA scheme (https://www.chaseyoursport.com/Sports/Khelo-India-Program/353) which got approximately 27 per cent of the total money allotted to sports 4% more than last year’s 23%. This year it has reached 601 cr with an increase of 50.31 cr. Apart from this NSDF( national sports development fund) has been a major beneficiary whose corpus has been increased from 2 cr to 70 cr. It is a fund established under the Charitable Endowment Act 1890 which creates infrastructure, provides free equipment does research work on sports and much more.
