Procuring passport will be costlier from today. Government has decided to increase the Passport and related services fees from 1000 to 1500 rupees under the normal category and from 2500 to 3500 rupees under Tatkal scheme.

A Ministry of External Affairs Ministry statement said, for Indian citizens living abroad, the fee has been raised to 75 US Dollars from 40 and to 60 Euros from 48 for normal applications.

The statement said, the hike was necessitated by considerable increase in the last ten years in inputs costs relating to establishment, capital expenditure, procurement of equipment, reimbursement to police authorities, payment to India Posts, printing of passport booklets, personalization costs, IT expenses and contractual payment to service providers.

AIR Correspondent reports, the Passport and related services were last fixed on March 29, 2002. The current regime of Passport fee came into force in July, 1993 subsequent to the passing of the Passport(Amendment) Bill, 1992 which permits the government to fix the Passport fee on the basis of actual cost incurred on issuing of a Passport.