Nearly Rs 258 crore was incurred on 38 foreign visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi between May 2022 and December 2024, according to data shared by the government.
Of these visits, the costliest one was the visit of the prime minister to the US in June 2023, which incurred over Rs 22 crore.
Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita shared the visit-wise data in his written response to a query in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Mallikarjun Kharge asked the government the total expenditure incurred by Indian embassies on arrangements for the prime minister’s foreign visits in the past three years.
He also asked for visit-wise details of expenses under major heads such as hotel arrangements, community receptions, transport arrangements and other miscellaneous expenditures among others.
The data on “country-wise expenditure on foreign visits by the Prime Minister, including the expenditure on official, accompanying, security and media delegations, in 2022, 2023 and 2024” was shared in a tabulated form in his response.
According to the data, an expenditure of Rs 22,89,68,509 was incurred on the visit of the prime minister to the US in June 2023, while the expenditure incurred was Rs 15,33,76,348 on the September 2024 visit to the same country.
The tabulated data pertained to 38 visits, from May 2022 visit to Germany to Kuwait visit in December 2024.
According to the data related to the PM’s Japan visit in May 2023, the expenditure incurred was Rs 17,19,33,356 while the same was Rs 80,01,483 on the Nepal visit in May 2022.
In 2022, foreign countries visited by the PM, also included Denmark, France, the UAE, Uzbekistan and Indonesia.
In 2023, Australia, Egypt, South Africa and Greece were among other foreign countries visited by the PM.
In 2024, the foreign countries visited by the PM also included Poland (which incurred Rs 10,10,18,686), Ukraine (Rs 2,52,01,169), Russia (Rs 5,34,71,726), Italy (Rs 14,36,55,289), Brazil (Rs 5,51,86,592) and Guyana (Rs 5,45,91,495).
The cumulative total of the expenditure incurred on these 38 foreign visits amounted to nearly Rs 258 crore.
The minister in his response also shared some corresponding data for years prior to 2014.
“For reference purpose, expenditure on Prime Minister’s foreign visits earlier were INR 10,74,27,363 (USA, 2011), INR 9,95,76,890 (Russia, 2013), INR 8,33,49,463 (France, 2011) and INR 6,02,23,484 (Germany, 2013). These figures show actual expenditure without adjusting for inflation or currency fluctuations,” he said. (PTI)
