MODI’S FOREIGN TRAVEL COST CUT BY HALF IN THIRD YEAR

BJP President Amit Shah said Manmohan Singh had travelled more to foreign nations than PM Modi

Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s foreign travel expenditure during the third year in office has more than halved, compared to the first year and is down by around 30 per cent from the second year. The numbers, made available by the government days before Modi completes three years in office on May 26, show that the spend on foreign travel for former PMs Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee during their third year in office had risen from the first year but had dipped from the second year.

Out of the six overseas trips made by PM Modi during his third year in office (till now), the cost related to chartered flights for five of these is a total of ~47.33 crore.

The expenditure towards the last trip, to Japan, is still not available, but it is estimated to be in the range of ~10 crore to ~13 crore.

In fact, a trip to Japan, though for a slightly longer duration in August-September 2014, had cost the exchequer ~13.47 crore.

Assuming that Modi’s Japan trip during November 2016 was priced at ~13.47 crore (the same as 2014 for that country), the total expenditure on overseas chartered flights during his third year in office would come to ~60.80 crore.

In that case, the PM’s foreign travel cost is down by 56.5 per cent during the third year in office, compared to the first and lower by 30.2 per cent from the second year.

In Singh’s case, the thirdyear foreign expenses on chartered flights at ~49.84 crore were up 14.5 per cent, compared to first year (~43.52 crore) and down 21.3 per cent from second year (~63.37 crore).

Vajpayee’s foreign travel flight cost at ~22.94 crore during the third year was up 81.3 per cent from the first year (~12.65 crore) and down 0.6 per cent from second year (~23.09 crore).

Bharatiya Janata Party

The numbers show the spend on foreign travel for former PMs Manmohan Singh and Vajpayee during their third year in office had risen from the first year but had dipped from the second year

President Amit Shah on Thursday reportedly said Manmohan Singh had travelled more to foreign countries than Modi as PM.

But, the total chartered flight expenditure on overseas travel for PM Modi during the first three years far exceeds the bills of Singh, though there’s a gap of 10 years between the two regimes and inflation has to be taken into account.

If the last trip of PM Modi to Japan is taken at an estimated ~13.47 crore (as in the case of the 2014 trip to that country), the total expenditure on overseas chartered flights during the first three years in office comes to ~288.1 crore, against ~156.73 crore for Singh and ~58.68 crore for Vajpayee.

As for the number of foreign trips, PM Modi went for 26, Singh to 21 and Vajpayee to eight during their first three years in office.

Modi made 11 foreign trips during the first year in office (three of which were by the Indian Air Force, or IAF, flights), nine in the second year (one of which was on an IAF plane) and six in the third year that’s currently on.

Singh went on six foreign trips in the first year, followed by nine in the second year and six again in the third year. During Vajpayee’s term, he went on two official foreign trips in the first year, and three each in the second and third year.