The Central Information Commission (CIC) may issue a recommendation to the Prime Minister's Office, to reform the payment process for the PM's foreign travel expenses.

According to sources, the CIC, on 3 January, heard an RTI plea filed by activist Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra about expenses incurred on foreign air travel by the Prime Minister. The CIC heard arguments from both the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of External Affairs.

"My RTI has more to do with the delay in payments rather than expenditure incurred," Batra had stated.

Batra had questioned why there was such a delay in payments when Air India was running at a huge loss.

"This is the tax payers' money that you are hoarding. There is no practical reason for the delay, and the matter concerns larger public interest," he added.

The CIC asked the PMO to divulge information on when the payment requests were made, and when the payments were actually completed for some trips, to figure out the delay in the entire process and how long the PMO takes to pay for the PM's trips.

"If this is the situation with the top executive of the country, there may be many more instances where the executive has not paid its dues," explained Batra. "My interest is in figuring what is the process of payments."

Batra, however, stated that according to the RTI Act, the CIC only had the power to recommend. "We have to wait for the final order," he stated.