Cabinet ministers in the previous UPA government ran up a bill of Rs 300 crore between 2006-09, the last three years of its term,
travelling within and outside the country.
The staggering figure, revealed in a reply to an RTI query by activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal, indicates the extent of spending by public representatives even as the country was sliding into an economic slowdown.
According to the cabinet secretariat, cabinet ministers - 30 in all in the UPA's first term - spent Rs 137 crore on foreign travel between fiscal 2006-07 and 2008-09 with highest in the year 2007-08 when more than Rs 115 crore was spent.
Incidentally, domestic travel too cost the public exchequer a pretty penny with the amount spent totalling Rs 163 crore. The expenditure incurred by them during 2008-09 was Rs 94.4 crore, which was 38% more than the cumulative expenditure incurred on domestic travel in the previous two years.
About Rs 127 crore was spent by central ministers in 2008-09, Rs 138.7 crore in 2007-08 and about Rs 82.3 crore during 2006-07 on their visits abroad as well as within the country.
The reply from cabinet secretariat did not give any further break-up of expenses in different heads as they are held by the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDO) of different ministries.
"This office does not have any record of any individual minister as all the expenditure is booked under one respective head of account of all the ministers. As per existing rules... the details of each and every payment to the individual concerned by the DDO of that ministry," J L Khurana, senior accounts officer at the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pension said.
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