Government has spent Rs 4,880 crore in ads since 2014-15: Rajyavardhan Rathore in Rajya Sabha

The central government has spent over Rs 4,880 crore in advertisements through electronic, print and other media since 2014-15, Rajya Sabha was informed today.

This was stated by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore in a written reply.

Giving the details, the minister said Rs 979.78 crore was spent in 2014-15, Rs 1,160.16 crore in 2015-16, Rs 1,264.26 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 1,313.57 crore in  2017-18. An amount of Rs 162.83 is a "booked expenditure" for 2018-19 so far, the minister added.

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 2,128.33 crore was spent on print advertisements, an expenditure of Rs 2,131.57 crore was incurred on publicity through audio-visual media, he said, adding that Rs 620.70 crore was spent on outdoor publicity.

The number of advertisements and the amount spent through the BOC for the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, Smart City Mission and Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana for the last three years was Rs 60.9442 crore on 52 advertisements in 2015-16, Rs 83.2686 crore on 142 advertisements in 2016-17, and Rs 147.9600 crore on 309 advertisements in 2017-18, Rathore said.

To a separate question, he said 867 private TV channels have valid permission to broadcast in India.

Permission of 236 private satellite TV channels have been cancelled due to various reasons, including denial of security clearance, Rathore said.

Out of the 236, permission to 147 TV channels was cancelled during last three years and current year upto June 30, he said.