 "Centre spent over Rs 52 bn in advertisements since 2014-15: MoS Rathore")
The central government has spent over Rs 52 billion in advertisements through electronic, print and other media since 2014-15, Lok Sabha was informed today.
This was stated by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore in a written reply to a question.
Giving the details, the minister said Rs 9.79 billion was spent in 2014-15, Rs 11.60 billion in 2015-16, Rs 12.64 billion in 2016-17 and Rs 13.13 billion in 2017-18. An amount of Rs 5.27 billion has been spent in 2018-19 till December 7, the minister added.
Therefore, the total expenditure since 2014-15 stands at Rs 52.45 billion.
The minister also gave the break-up of the amount spent by the government through the Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC), an entity created after merging the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, the Directorate of Field Publicity and Song and Drama Division last year.
While Rs 22.82 billion was spent on print advertisements, an expenditure of Rs 23.12 billion was incurred on publicity through audio-visual media, he said, adding that Rs 6.51 billion was spent on outdoor publicity.