Claim: PM Modi has spent less on foreign trips than former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Singh spent ₹1,350 crore on 72 foreign visits over 10 years, whereas Modi spent ₹258 crore on 38 visits over 11 years.

Fact: These posts compare the expenditure incurred on foreign visits by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over a nine-year period with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a two-and-a-half-year period. According to data provided by government of India, nearly ₹259 crore was spent on Narendra Modi’s 38 foreign trips between May 2022 and December 2024 and over ₹2,000 crore was spent on Modi’s 84 foreign trips between 2014 and 2018. According to reports, Manmohan Singh undertook 38 foreign trips during his second term (2009–2014), incurring a total cost of approximately ₹1,346 crore. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.

The claims are misleading. While the amounts quoted are accurate, the time frames referenced are not.

Upon conducting a relevant keyword search, we found multiple reports (here, here, and here) recently published in March 2025 regarding Modi’s foreign travel expenditure. According to these reports, based on data provided by the government in Parliament on 20 March 2025, nearly ₹259 crore was spent on Narendra Modi’s 38 foreign trips between May 2022 and December 2024.

In response to a question from Mallikarjun Kharge in the Rajya Sabha regarding the total expenditure on arrangements for the Prime Minister’s foreign trips over the past three years (2022, 2023, 2024), Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita provided details of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign travel expenses. According to the information shared in this reponse, nearly ₹259 crore was spent on Modi’s 38 foreign trips during this period. The most expensive trip was to the United States in June 2023, costing over ₹22 crore. From this information, it is clear that ₹258 crore was spent on 38 foreign visits by Prime Minister Modi over a two-and-a-half-year period from May 2022 to December 2024.

The details on the foreign visits of Manmohan and Modi can be found on the PM India official website. According to the information available on this website, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertook 73 foreign visits during his tenure from May 2004 to May 2014. In the period from 2004 to 2009, Dr Singh made 35 foreign trips. During his second term (2009–2014), he undertook 38 foreign trips, bringing his total to 73 visits over two terms spanning ten years.

According to a report by ‘The New Indian Express’ published in December 2018, Manmohan Singh undertook 38 foreign trips during his second term (2009–2014), incurring a total cost of approximately ₹1,346 crore. In comparison, Narendra Modi made 48 foreign visits between May 2014 and December 2018, costing the exchequer nearly ₹2,021 crore.

Multiple (here, here, and here) news reports in 2018 stated that the then Minister of State for External Affairs, V. K. Singh, disclosed in Parliament that over ₹2,000 crore was spent on Modi’s 84 foreign trips between 2014 and 2018.

On 12 December 2018, in response to a question posed by Binoy Viswam in the Rajya Sabha regarding the Prime Minister’s foreign trips from 2014 to 2018, Minister of State for External Affairs V. K. Singh provided details of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign travel and its expenses. According to the information shared, over ₹2,000 crore was spent on Modi’s 84 foreign trips during this period.

According to a report published by ‘The New Indian Express’ in April 2015, in response to an RTI filed by activist Daniel Jesudass, the Prime Minister’s Office stated that between May 2004 and March 2013, the government spent approximately ₹676 crore exclusively on Manmohan Singh’s foreign visits during his nine-year tenure. He travelled to 36 countries during this period. As per the reply, Manmohan Singh’s first visit to Bangkok, from 29 July to 31 July 2004, cost the government ₹5,38,95,000. His last visit, to South Africa on 25 March 2013, incurred an expenditure of ₹10,94,79,000.

According to the data available on the Prime Minister’s official website, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his first foreign visit to Bangkok in July 2004 and his last foreign visit to Myanmar in March 2014. This data includes the dates of the visits and the expenses incurred on chartered flights. According to the available information, the former Prime Minister undertook 73 foreign visits during his tenure from 2004 to 2014, with total travel expenses on chartered flights amounting to approximately ₹795 crore.

Earlier, a similar claim went viral, stating that PM Modi had spent less than Manmohan Singh on foreign trips. Debunking this, Factly published a fact-check article.

To sum it up, these posts are misleading as they compare the foreign travel expenditures of former PM Manmohan Singh over a nine-year period with those of PM Modi over a two-and-a-half-year period.

(This story was originally published by factly.in, and republished by english.varthabharati.in as part of the Shakti Collective)