In his 4 years in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent Rs 355 crore on 41 trips to over 50 countries, according to Right to Information (RTI) response by the PMO. In response to an RTI query filed by activist Bhimappa Gadad, the PMO said that Modi stayed abroad for a cumulative 165 days, the New Indian Express reported.
According to the RTI reply, the government spent Rs 31,25,78,000 on Modi's nine-day tri-nation visit to France, Germany and Canada, the highest amount spent on a single trip.
The lowest was spent on the Prime Minister's trip to Bhutan. Rs 2,45,27,465 was spent on Modi's first ever abroad trip on 15-16 June 2014, the RTI reply said.
Gaddad said he filed it out of curiosity.
“A few years ago, I had applied for details of foreign visits by chief ministers of Karnataka. Recently, I was going through news reports wherein Prime Minister’s foreign visits were heavily criticized. Then I applied under RTI seeking details of PM’s foreign visits and I was really shocked to know the details,” he said.
Earlier, national carrier Air India had denied information on the expense incurred on Modi's trips citing an instruction from the PMO to not share information related to the Prime Minister's foreign visits. The Chief Information Commission had directed Air India to disclose complete records related to bills raised for the foreign visits.
However, the PMO website - pmindia.gov.in - itself provides the "Expenses incurred on Chartered Flight" on PM Modi's every trip except in the cases where he used Indian Air Force's Boeing Business Jets (BBJ) aircraft.
Complete information on PM Modi's foreign visits here
While the RTI reply says Modi made 41 trips as the Prime Minister, the website says that his recent China visit to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit was his 42nd foreign visit.
The website provides information till his Switzerland visit which he made on 22-23 January earlier this year. Rs 13,20,83,000 was spent on this trip.
