New Delhi, June 9: A sum of over Rs 642 crore has been incurred on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's air travels abroad in the last nine years. This information has been made public by the PMO as part of obligations under the mandatory proactive disclosure clause of the Right to Information Act.
The information reveals that Singh undertook 67 travels since 2004 when he took over as PM, of which bills of five have not been received. The bills received from the rest 62 visits show that Rs 642.45 crore was spent on air travel.
The Central Information Commission, in a recent order, had directed the Cabinet Secretariat to make public expenses incurred on the travel of ministers and VVIPs because of "large public interest" in the matter.
The list of the Singh's visits shows maximum expenditure of Rs 26.94 crore was incurred on his seven-day long visit to Mexico and Brazil in 2012 to attend G20 Summit and Rio+20 Summit respectively.
This was followed by Rs 22.70 crore spent on air travel to Washington DC, USA and Brazil in 2010 where he had gone to attend the Nuclear Security Summit, BRIC Summit and IBSA Summit.