PM’s 38 foreign trips since 2022 cost ₹259 crore, govt tells House
The expenses were largely under five heads – accommodation, venue charges, security, transportation and miscellaneous expenditure
New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 38 foreign trips between May 2022 and December 2024 for bilateral meetings and multilateral events cost a total of almost ₹259 crore, according to figures provided by the government in Parliament on Thursday.
The expenses were largely under five heads – accommodation, venue charges, security, transportation and miscellaneous expenditure – with accommodation, at a total of ₹104 crore, accounting for a little less than half of the overall total. This was followed by miscellaneous expenditure ( ₹75.7 crore) and transportation ( ₹71.1 crore).
The figures were provided by minister of state for external affairs Pabitra Margherita in a written reply to a question from senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge in Rajya Sabha. The response said the figures included the “expenditure on official, accompanying, security and media delegations”.
In terms of individual countries, the highest expenditure was on trips to the US ( ₹38.2 crore), followed by Japan ( ₹33 crore), Germany ( ₹23.9 crore), Russia ( ₹16.1 crore), France ( ₹15.7 crore), Italy ( ₹14.4 crore) and the UAE ( ₹12.7 crore).
During the three-year period, the highest expenditure on an individual trip was ₹22.89 crore spent on a visit to the US in June 2023, while the lowest expenditure on an individual trip was ₹80.01 lakh spent on a visit to Nepal in May 2022.
While the Prime Minister made a total of 38 trips, he visited 34 countries (since he made more than one visit to some countries). He visited eight countries in 2022, 10 in 2023 and 16 in 2024.
There were 10 visits in 2022, and the average cost per visit for the year was ₹5.6 crore. There were 11 visits in 2023 and the average cost per visit for the year was ₹8.5 crore. The number of foreign visits in 2024 increased to 17 and the average cost per visit for the year was ₹6.4 crore.
For reference purposes, Margherita’s reply provided the expenditure on some prime ministerial foreign visits undertaken during the tenure of late former premier Manmohan Singh. These included ₹10.74 crore spent on a visit to the US in 2011, ₹9.95 crore for a visit to Russia in 2013, ₹8.33 crore for a visit to France in 2011, and ₹6.02 crore for a visit to Germany in 2013.
“These figures show actual expenditure without adjusting for inflation or currency fluctuations,” the reply stated.
Among the countries visited by the Prime Minister in 2022 were Germany, Denmark, France, Nepal, Japan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uzbekistan and Indonesia.
In 2023, the Prime Minister visited Papua New Guinea, Australia, Japan, the US, Egypt, France, the UAE, South Africa, Greece and Indonesia. In 2024, the Prime Minister travelled to the UAE, Qatar, Bhutan, Italy, Austria, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Brunei Darussalam, the US, Singapore, Laos, Nigeria, Brazil, Guyana and Kuwait.
The Prime Minister travels abroad on a special aircraft designated Air India One that is operated by a special squadron of the Indian Air Force using two Boeing 777-300ERs acquired in 2016. The premier is usually accompanied by senior officials from the Prime Minister’s Office and several ministries, including the external affairs ministry, and a security detachment from the Special Protection Group.