New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS): The government on Friday hiked the sports budget by Rs 214.20 crore for the financial year 2019-2020, which also includes an increase of Rs 55 crore in funds for the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

Presenting the interim budget in Parliament, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said the overall sports budget for 2019-2020 has been increased from Rs 2002.72 crore (2018-2019) to Rs 2,216.92 crore.

While the allocation for the SAI has been hiked from Rs 395 crore to Rs 450 crore, the other major gainers in the interim sports budget are the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) and the sportspersons, whose incentive funds have risen northward.

The allocation for NSDF has been increased from Rs 2 crore to Rs 70 crore, while the incentive fund for the sportspersons has risen from Rs 63 crore to Rs 89 crore.

The overall encouragement and awards to sportspersons have also seen a hike of Rs 94.07 crore, which takes it from Rs 316.93 crore to Rs 411 crore, while the allocation for the Khelo India National Programme for Development of Sports was also raised by Rs 50.31 crore, from the previous Rs 550.69 crore to Rs 601 crore.

However, the allocation for the National Sports Federations (NSF) has been slightly reduced from Rs 245.13 crore to Rs 245 crore.