Indian citizens paid INR 16,767.55 crore in passport application fees over the past five years, the Ministry of External Affairs told the Lok Sabha on Friday. Minister of State Kirti Vardhan Singh shared the figure in response to a question from MP M.K. Vishnu Prasad, covering the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
During this five-year span, 68,181,433 passport applications were filed, of which 65,070,353 were issued and 8,794 were rejected. The disclosure comes weeks after the ministry revised passport fees on 25 June, the first such change in 14 years, coinciding with the rollout of the e-passport scheme.
Under the new fee structure, a standard 36-page passport now costs INR 2,500, up from INR 1,500, while Tatkaal (urgent) processing doubles that to INR 5,000. A 60-page passport costs INR 3,500 for normal delivery and INR 6,000 for Tatkaal, and reissuance due to damage or loss now costs Rs 5,000 (INR 7,500 for Tatkaal).
The government justified the hike by pointing to rising costs from upgraded services, including the Passport Seva Programme and the shift to e-passports, which it said improved quality, security and efficiency but also raised delivery costs. Singh told Parliament that inflation over the 14 years since the last fee revision made the increase unavoidable.
Notably, government sources had indicated last November that no fee hike was planned and that rising costs would be absorbed by the state — a stance reversed by the end of June. The e-passport initiative embeds an RFID chip in the document’s last page, aligning with ICAO international standards for easier verification at airports abroad.
Since the programme’s public rollout, 14.7 million e-passports have been issued, including 13 million in the past year alone, with every passport issued since 28 May 2025 now carrying the RFID chip.