The government has disbursed Rs 97.4 million to religious organizations.
The Roman Catholic Church is the principal beneficiary of government funds out of eleven religious federations. It received Rs 96,409,000 under the Per Capita Subsidy Scheme.
This was revealed in a document tabled at the National Assembly by the Ministry of Finance.
The Mauritius Sanatan Dharma Temples Federation took the second largest share with Rs 31,346,000.
The Board of Waqf Commissioners received Rs 15,444,000.
Other beneficiaries were Mauritius Tamil temples Federation (Rs6,590,000), Arya Sabha Mauritius (Rs6,433,000), Mauritius Arya Ravived Pracharini Sabha (Rs5,263,000), Mauritius Gahlot Rajput Maha Sabha (Rs2,653,000), Mauritius Telegu Maha Sabha (Rs2,501,000), Mauritius Marathi Mandali Federation (Rs748,000), Presbyterian Church (Rs96,000).
The Mauritian government also granted Rs 1,065,000 under the Fixed Grant Scheme to six non-affiliated religious organizations.
One of them is Shri Sanatan Dharma Mandir Parishad which received Rs 399,000.
Five other organisations received Rs 133,000 each. They are Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, Swastika, Shri Kabir Council of Mauritius, ISKCON and Chinmaya Mission.
The Mauritian government gives financial assistance to key religious organizations in Mauritius every year.
In 2021, the Ministry of Finance had given a one-time grant of Rs 10 million to these religious organizations, “because of the pandemic”.
SourceL Defi Media
