Govt's publicity bill: Rs 2,374cr on electronic media, Rs 670cr on outdoor publicity

NEW DELHI: The Central government has spent Rs 2,374 crore on its publicity in electronic media and Rs 670 crore on outdoor publicity in the last five years, according to an RTI reply by the bureau of outreach and communication under the ministry of information and broadcasting.
Giving a break up of expenditure on electronic media, including social media platforms, television and radio, it said Rs 470.39 crore was spent in 2014-15, Rs 541.99 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 613.78 crore during 2016-17.
The sum was Rs 474.76 crore for 2017-18,and Rs 273.54 crore from April 2018 to December 2018.
It added up to Rs 2,374.46 crore being spent on electronic media between April 2014 and December 2018, the bureau said in reply to a Right to Information query by bureaucrat Sanjiv Chaturvedi.
The expenditure was done on All India Radio, DD National, internet, production, radio, SMS, theatre, TV and on miscellaneous heads among others, the RTI reply said.
The expenditure was made on different types of advertisements in various categories such as employment notices, tenders, other notices and advertisements of various schemes through the Bureau on behalf of various client ministries/departments/public sector undertakings, it said.
A sum of nearly Rs 670 crore was spent on outdoor publicity during 2014 and November 26, 2018, the Bureau said without specifying details of what constituted outdoor publicity.
Of this, Rs 81.27 crore was spent in 2014-15, Rs 118.51 crore during 2015-16, Rs 186.37 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 208.54 crore during 2017-18, the RTI reply said.
A total of Rs 75.08 crore has been spent on outdoor publicity during April 2018 and November 26, 2018, it said.
Chaturvedi sought details of amount spent on all the advertisements related to publicity of central government from June 1, 2014, including the amount spent in print, electronic and social media.
The bureau provided details of the amount spent on electronic media and outdoor publicity. However, it gave a CD containing the amount paid to newspapers since 2014 without mentioning the exact total amount, either year-wise or of the past five years.
In case of outdoor publicity, the bureau of outreach and communication also gave details of expenditure since 2009-10.
It said about Rs 19.85 crore was spent during 2009-10, Rs 31.06 crore during 2010-11 and Rs 45.47 crore in 2011-12.
As much as Rs 51.42 crore was spent on outdoor publicity in 2012-13 and nearly Rs 74.35 crore during 2013-14, the RTI reply said.