Budget 2022: FM Nirmala Sitharaman announces highest ever sports budget of INR 3,062.60 crore

The Union Budget 2022 was announced on Tuesday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The budget for the sports has been capped at ₹3,062.60 crore. It is the highest ever to date.

On Tuesday, the Union Budget 2022 was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for 2022-23. The Central government also announced the budget for the sports sector. The budget has witnessed an increase of ₹300 crore from the previous financial year (2021-22). Although Nirmala did not mention sports during her budget speech, gaming was the term used.

"An AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic) promotion task force, with all stakeholders, will be set up to recommend ways to realise this and build domestic capacity for serving out markets and the global demand," Nirmala said during her budget speech on Tuesday at the Parliament in New Delhi.

The budget for sports in 2021-22 was ₹2757.02 crore. However, for the 2022-23 financial year, it will be 3062.60 crore, which indicates an increase of 305.58 crore. Most of these amounts would be spent preparing the athletes for the upcoming Commonwealth Games (CWG) and Asian Games (AG), besides some being shared with various sports federations of the nation.

On the other hand, the National Youth Empowerment Program (NYEP) will also see an increase in the total amount allotted to it. While ₹108 crore was spent on it in 2021-22, it will be ₹138 crore this financial year (2022-23). Furthermore, the budget for the Khelo India youth programme has also seen an increase in its budget, from ₹879 crore to ₹974 crore.