The government has said that nearly ₹258 crore was incurred on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 38 foreign visits between May 2022 and December 2024, with his June 2023 visit to the United States incurring over ₹22 crore.
Minister of state for external affairs Pabitra Margherita shared the details in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, questioned the government on the expenses incurred by Indian embassies for the prime minister’s foreign visits over the last three years.
He also requested a breakdown of costs for each visit, covering areas such as hotel stays, community receptions, transport, and other related expenses.
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 presented in a tabulated form in the response.
According to the data, ₹22,89,68,509 was incurred on the prime minister’s visit to the US in June 2023, while the September 2024 visit to the same country incurred ₹15,33,76,348.
The tabulated data pertained to 38 visits, from the May 2022 visit to Germany to the Kuwait visit in December 2024.
According to the data, the prime minister’s visit to Japan in May 2023 incurred ₹17,19,33,356, while the Nepal visit in May 2022 incurred ₹80,01,483.
In 2022, the prime minister also visited Denmark, France, the UAE, Uzbekistan, and Indonesia.
In 2023, his foreign trips included Australia, Egypt, South Africa, and Greece.
In 2024, he visited several countries, including Poland ( ₹10,10,18,686), Ukraine ( ₹2,52,01,169), Russia ( ₹5,34,71,726), Italy ( ₹14,36,55,289), Brazil ( ₹5,51,86,592), and Guyana ( ₹5,45,91,495).
The total expenditure incurred on these 38 foreign visits amounted to nearly ₹258 crore.
The minister also provided some related data for years before 2014 in his response.urred
“For reference purpose, expenditure incurred 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,” the minister said.
With PTI inputs