India's London consulate costliest and Bali consulate cheapest
20 Aug, 2013
An application was filed with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the details of expenditures incurred on Indian embassies in different countries in past five years.
The reply from the ministry contained information corresponding to the years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12. The data provided in the reply shows that India's costliest consulate is that of London with an annual expense of over Rs. 58 crore while the Indian consulate in Bali (Indonesia) is the cheapest one with the total yearly expense coming out to be around Rs. 20 lakh. The London consulate is followed by the mission in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with an annual expense of Rs. 45.63 crore in 2011-12 and Kabul consulate on which total expenses were Rs. 39.09 crore during 2011-12.
The reply to the application shows that the expenses on all the 178 consulates across the world has been consistently increasing with the figures standing at Rs. 1374.48 crore in 2009-10, Rs. 1386.95 crore in 2010-11 and Rs. 1497.58 crore in 2011-12.