Govt expenditure on foreign tour of ministers rises 12 fold

When most were exercising austerity because of rising inflation, Central government ministers went on a spree of foreign trips resulting in government expenditure rising by around 12 times. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Sep 26, 2012, 21:39:29 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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When most were exercising austerity because of rising inflation, Central government ministers went on a spree of foreign trips resulting in the government expenditure rising by around 12 times.

As per information made available under the Right To Information Act, the Central government spent Rs. 678 crore on foreign tours of ministers in 2011-12 as compared to just 56.1 crore in 2010-11.

The government itself did not estimate that the expenditure would be so much.

So, at the beginning of financial year 2011-12, the Finance Ministry provided just Rs 46.9 crore for foreign trips. But, it had to increase funds for their foreign trips subsequently to Rs. 631 crore.

In fact data shows that government spending on foreign tours of its ministers in last financial year was almost the same as the total expense, in this account, in all financial years, of the UPA government which came to power in 2004.

The data provided under RTI is indicative of the point that maximum foreign trips for the Central ministers in a year was in 2011-12.

Subhash Chandra Aggarwal, who had sought information on foreign trips of the ministers, said the government should have taken measures to reduce frequent foreign visits of Union ministers.

“Rule should be only economy-class travel allowed for union ministers during their foreign trips that too with every day of their trip to be justified through a detailed study-report compulsorily to be submitted after every foreign-trip,” he said.

Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia had, however, described many of the foreign trips necessary for building brand India. It was his response to criticism of being on frequent foreign trips.

The government has been under fire for high cost foreign trips of its ministers. The Department of Personnel and Training recently asked all public information officers of the Central government ministries and departments to voluntarily disclose information related to foreign and domestic tours undertaken by the ministers and officials above the rank of joint secretaries.

Earlier, the Central Information Commission had asked the Cabinet Secretariat to keep a separate account of foreign tours of individual ministers so that the information can be provided to the RTI applicants.

Foreign trip expenditure

Financial year

Final Expenditure

2011-12

Rs 678 crore

2010-11

Rs 56.1 crore

2009-10

Rs 81.54 crore

2008-09

Rs 90 crore

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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