to stop sending financial aid to India from January 1, 2016
LONDON: The British government will from January 01, 2016 cut millions of pounds in aid to India.As per the statistics released by the Department for International Development (DfID), India received GBP 279 million in 2014, a GBP 10 million increase over the previous year.
Asserting that the government is “not worried” about Britain deciding to stop financial aid to the country, Union Minister Sushma Swaraj had on December 23 said the move implies that Britain recognises India`s economic strength.
While financial aid will come to an end, the UK will continue to offer grants and technical assistance to India from 2016.This, however, has sparked anger in some quarters in the UK.
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the UK`s TaxPayers Alliance, said: “British taxpayers will be staggered that their money is being used to support projects in a country that can well afford to look after its own citizens, especially since we have been told aid to India would be scaled back.”
UK international development secretary Justine Greening had announced three years ago that Britain`s aid to India would end by the end of 2015, as the two countries developed “a new kind of relationship”.
“We have agreed that the UK`s programme of financial grant aid to India will end. We will finish existing financial grant projects responsibly, so that they all complete as planned by 2015,” she had said.
The latest figures revealed that Britain`s overall aid spending has risen to GBP 11.7 billion and that it now spends most of its aid money on a fund to tackle climate change.
