In a response to Right To Information (RTI) filed by City-based RTI activist Anil Galgali seeking the total Foreign Travel Expenses (FTE) and Domestic Travel Expenses (DTE) incurred by the prime minister and his council since May 2014, it has emerged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his council of ministers incurred an expenditure of Rs 393 crore on foreign and domestic travel in the last five fiscal years.
Satish Goyal, the senior accounts officer of Pay and Account Office of the Cabinet Affairs, stated that cumulative expenditure incurred on FTE and DTE by the PM and the ministers from the financial year 2014-15 to 2018-19 was Rs 393.58 crore.
Citing e-lekha reports, Goyal gave separate expenditures of the cabinet ministers, the prime minister and the ministers of state.
According to the RTI reply, cabinet ministers and the prime minister spent Rs 311 crore, while ministers of state spent Rs 82 crores on their foreign and domestic visits.A major chunk of expenses was incurred in the year 2014-15 when Rs 88 crore was spent on foreign travels by the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues.
In December 2018, the Modi government, replying to queries on foreign travel expenses in Rajya Sabha, had said that an expenditure of over Rs 2,021 crore was incurred on chartered flights, maintenance of aircraft and hotline facilities during Modi’s visits to foreign countries since June 2014.
