Why PM Modi Personally Intervened to Crush Rumors of a New Foreign Travel Tax Amid the 2026 Global Energy Crisis and Forced a Major Media Withdrawal
2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 16, 2026 09:24 AM IST
Dismissing an online news report, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday said that there were no restrictions being put on foreign travel.
The report had claimed that the Centre was considering to levy a tax on foreign travel.
Rejecting the claims, PM Modi wrote on X: “This is totally false. Not an iota of truth in this. There is no question of putting such restrictions on foreign travel.”
This is totally false.
Not an iota of truth in this.
There is no question of putting such restrictions on foreign travel.
We remain committed to improving ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and ‘Ease of Living’ for our people. https://t.co/9lxjbxz0nV
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 15, 2026
He also asserted the Centre’s commitment to improve ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and ‘Ease of Living’ for Indian citizens.
Following PM’s clarification, the media organisation issued an apology and withdrew its report.
On Sunday, the prime minister had called on Indian citizens to avoid non-essential foreign travel, reduce fuel consumption, and refrain from buying gold for a year.
During his speech at a rally in Hyderabad, Modi appealed for collective participation of the people to help India face global disruptions and challenges amid the West Asia war which hae continued to put pressure on the country’s external sector with forex reserves plummeting by $38 billion in a span of only two months.
The PM asked citizens to use public transport as much as possible, increase the use of electric vehicles (EVs), revive Covid-era measures such as work-from-home arrangements and virtual meetings, avoid non-essential foreign travel and gold purchases for a year, and prioritise local goods, among other measures.
