The Central Government’s ad spends on Print, Electronic, and Digital media has witnessed a steep decline in the last three years. The government slashed ad budgets in 2019-20, where the ad expenditure allocation for the Print medium was slashed to Rs 295.05 crore, and the allocation for electronic media fell to Rs 316.99 crore.
The ad budget slash was highest during 2020-21, where the government ad spends declined to Rs 197.49 crore for the print medium and Rs 167.98 crore for electronic media platforms, Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told the Rajya Sabha on Monday in a written response to BJD MP Sambit Patra.
Patra had sought information on the total amount of government advertisements provided to newspapers, TV, magazines and digital media over the past three years, category-wise and year-wise.
During financial years between 2017-18 and 2019-20, the central government spent Rs 1,196.89 crore in print, TV and digital media, which doesn’t include other publicity modes like outdoor, pamphlets etc.
According to an RTI query, the central government must pay various print media outlets more than Rs 147 crore and around Rs 67 crore to electronic media outlets as payment for government advertisements.
