Centre spent ₹38 lakh for Trump’s India visit, says External Affairs Ministry

The Indian government spent about ₹38 lakh on United States President Donald Trump’s maiden visit to the country, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Wednesday (March 11).

Answering a question in the Lok Sabha on Trump’s two-day visit, the minister said the expenses included the cost incurred in accommodation, meals, and logistics.

The ministry also clarified that ‘expenditure by host nations on incoming state visits by heads of state/heads of government is a well-established practice and in accordance with internationally accepted norms,’ while answering the 2,913th unstarred question asked by N.K. Premachandran, M.K. Raghavan, Adoor Prakash, and Anto Antony.

Meanwhile, according to a report in The Times of India, POTUS’s three-hour visit to Gujarat on February 24 cost the state government over ₹100 crore for the preparations of the same.

Related news: Jet set Modi: Govt spent ₹446.52 cr on PM’s foreign visits in five years

As per the TOI report dated February 15 this year, about ₹80 crore was spent on resurfacing and constructing new roads on Trump’s route from the airport to the Motera Stadium and  approximately ₹15 crore for security measures taken during the US President and FLOTUS Melania Trump’s visit.

The cost incurred for providing transportation and refreshments to over a lakh guests at the inauguration of the stadium was about ₹10 crore. Another ₹10 crore was used for beautification of the city, including transplanting palms on dividers and decking roadshow route with exotic flowers. It also included the ₹4 crore spent on the cultural extravaganza along the Modi-Trump roadshow route.

However, the total amount mentioned in several news reports does not tally with the figure given by the minister.

Interestingly, Business Today reported that this expenditure is equivalent to about 1.5 per cent of the annual budget of the Home Department in Gujarat.