Notwithstanding a huge controversyover expenditure on her foreign travels, the then PresidentPratibha Patil ran up a bill of Rs 18.08 crore on her lasttrip abroad shortly before demitting office, according toofficial information accessed through RTI.
The chartering of the Air India Boeing 747-400 jumbo forher two-nation trip to South Africa and Seychelles from April29 to May 8 last year alone cost Rs 16.38 crore, the airlinesaid in an RTI reply.
In addition, an expenditure of Rs 1.46 crore was incurredin Pretoria -- the South African capital. Of this, Rs 71.82lakh was spent on local stay, 52.33 lakh on transportation and22.12 lakh on miscellaneous expenditure.
In Durban, an expenditure of Rs 23.55 lakh was incurred. Of this hotel stay alone cost nearly 18 lakh andtransportation was Rs 5.27 lakh.
The details about the lodging and other expenditures inSouth Africa were provided by the Indian Missions in Pretoriaand Durban under RTI.
A huge controversy broke out last year when it wasrevealed that Patil had incurred an expenditure of Rs 205crore on her 12 foreign trips covering 22 countries acrossfour continents during her five-year term which ended on July25 last year.
These figures were provided before she undertook the lastvisit to South Africa and Seychelles.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan had then defended these visitsterming them "necessary" to deepen bilateral cooperation. Thevisits were undertaken after careful appraisal andrecommendation by the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministryof External Affairs.