(Image source from: Home ministry extends e-tourist visa scheme to 37 more countries})

The home ministry is set to extend e-tourist visa scheme to 37 more nations from Friday. The commitment was made by finance minister Arun Jaitley in his 2015-16 budget speech.

E-tourist visa facility was introduced by the government,  on November 27, 2014, was provided to tourists from 113 countries till now. The current extension takes the total number of beneficiary countries to 150.

The new 37 countries added to the scheme are, Albania, Austria, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina,  Cape Verde, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Comoros, Cote d'lvoire,  Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Iceland, Malawi, Moldova, Namibia, Romania, San Marino, South Africa, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia,  Trinidad & Tobago, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

A senior home ministry officer said that, "with this addition, the total count of countries under the e-tourist visa scheme will rise to 150, as promised in the last budget." The initiative is timed just a few days ahead of the representation of Union Budget 2016-17.

Since the e-tourist visa scheme has launched, more than 7.5 lakh visas have been issued by the home ministry. The figure shows that, an average of 3,500 e-tourist visas is issued on a daily basis for the foreign citizens.

Nandini