New Delhi, Dec 14: The central government has spent over Rs 5,200 crore in advertisements through electronic, print and other media since 2014-15, the Lok Sabha was informed.
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 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 527.96 crore has been spent in 2018-19 till December 7, the minister added. Therefore, the total expenditure since 2014-15 stands at Rs 5,245.73 crore.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 2,282 crore was spent on print advertisements, an expenditure of Rs 2,312.59 crore was incurred on publicity through audio-visual media, he said, adding that Rs 651.14 crore was spent on outdoor publicity.