Cabinet ministers' foreign trips go over budget by 17 times in 2011-12

The bill for cabinet ministers' foreign trips have gone over budget by 17 times the budgeted amount for 2011-12, according to the demands for grants submitted by the Home ministry to parliament in the latest budget.

The cost of foreign tours for cabinet ministers for 2011-12 was budgeted to be no more than 27crore by the home ministry last year. However, in the latest detailed demands for grants submitted to parliament by the home ministry, the revised estimates for the year now amount to 479.94 crore –about 17 times over budget.

Minister of State for the Prime Minister's office had told parliament in December last year that the bill would be much higher than budget estimates since it includes the payment of pending dues to Air India, which, at the time amounted to Rs 435 crore.

Assuming those were the total dues payable for the year, the bill for foreign travel by cabinet ministers is still over-budget by about Rs 18-19 crore for 2011-12.

Interestingly, the budget estimate for the current financial year (2012-13), for the foreign travel of cabinet ministers is also expected to be much higher than in earlier years, at Rs 241 crore.