Parliament’s cost to taxpayers: Government refuses to divulge details in RTI reply. Here’s what | said Mint special | Today’s news
The Center declined to disclose under Right to Information (RTI) how much it costs to run Parliament or how much taxpayers’ money is lost when Parliament loses sitting hours due to disruptions.
An RTI filed by Mint on August 13 with the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs asked, “What was the total money lost/wasted due to interruption/loss of sitting time in each of the last 10 sessions of the Rajya Sabha?”
The Rajya Sabha Secretariat responded on September 2, saying, “The information requested does not constitute ‘information’ under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, 2005.”
A reply from the Lok Sabha Secretariat is awaited.
What is considered ‘information’ under the RTI Act?
Section 2(f) of the Right to Information Act 2005 defines “information” as “any material in any form, including records, documents, notes, e-mails, opinions, advice, press releases, circulars, orders, diaries, contracts, reports, documents, samples, models, data material stored in any electronic form and information relating to any private entity to which any other public authority may have access under any other law”.
Why does money matter?
The RTI response came days after the Lok Sabha witnessed sloganeering, uproar and repeated disruption during the 2026 Monsoon Session of Parliament, which was held from July 20, 2026 to August 13, 2026.
In the session, the opposition sought the government’s response to alleged police atrocities against NEET protesters at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar during the July 20 violence. Several bills were passed without members engaging in discussion. The question hour was also affected by the interruption.
Overall, the Lok Sabha recorded a productivity of 19 percent while the Rajya Sabha recorded a productivity of 39 percent during the 2026 monsoon session, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said. Accusing the opposition of avoiding debates in the House, Rijiju said 11 out of 12 bills were passed without discussion.
According to data available on the Lok Sabha website, a total of “79 hours 34 minutes” of time was lost due to interruptions/forced adjournments. The total number of sitting hours – recorded at 5:32 pm – was the lowest in all eight sessions of the 18th Lok Sabha.
Parliament costs taxpayers ₹2.5 million per minute?
Amid the chaos, many have raised questions about the money lost as a result of these repeated disruptions and the loss of parliamentary sitting time. “According to the old conservative estimate, Parliament costs taxpayers ₹2.5 million every minute,” a Supreme Court advocate
Mahesh Jethmalani said. But he is not the only one who mentions this number.
In 2024, Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Sahney he said that crores of rupees are being spent on the functioning of Parliament. He also claimed: “Every minute of Parliament costs ₹2.5 million of taxpayers’ money.”
where it is done ₹Where does the 2.5 million per minute number come from?
There is no official source for this number, which has been cited by many over the years.
The first known mention of figures relating to the money that goes into running a parliamentary session was in a 2008 Lok Sabha discussion paper, according to think tank PRS, which estimated that every minute of parliamentary expenses ₹29,000 to the exchequer.
Four years later, then Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal reportedly said that the cost of disrupting Parliament was high ₹2.5 lakh per minute, according to PRS. However, the report clarified that “there is no information about the calculation behind these numbers, but assigning a rupee value to the work of Parliament is inherently problematic”.
