NEW DELHI — Following widespread rumors, the administration clarified on Friday that there is "not an iota of truth" to reports of a formal tax on foreign travel, assuring the middle class that their international vacations will only be subjected to intense patriotic guilt-tripping during the ongoing global energy crisis.

The denial comes five days after the Prime Minister publicly urged citizens to avoid non-essential overseas travel to protect India's foreign exchange reserves as crude oil crossed $100 a barrel amid the U.S.-Iran war. The strategy of replacing formal legislation with emotional manipulation has already proven successful, with travel aggregators reporting a 10 to 15 percent drop in overseas inquiries simply from citizens fearing they might be perceived as unpatriotic for seeking a holiday.

"A formal travel tax would be an unpopular policy, whereas publicly implying that a family trip to Dubai is a betrayal of the motherland achieves the exact same reduction in our import bill," said a government spokesperson. "More importantly, focusing the nation's financial anxiety on middle-class tourists helps us avoid discussing the actual drain on our reserves."

According to RBI data, the real growth in foreign exchange outflows stems from high-net-worth individuals, who quietly transferred $2.2 billion into foreign debt and equities and another $490 million into overseas properties in 2025-26. "We are very clear that quietly buying a villa in London is a private investment decision," the spokesperson added. "It is only a budget honeymoon in Bali that threatens the macroeconomic stability of the rupee."