Government spent Rs 2,500 cr in last 5 years on ads in print, electronic media

Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said the amount committed for advertisements by the government through print and electronic media during the period 2017-18 till date is Rs 2601.98 crore.

New Delhi: The Centre has spent over Rs 2,500 crore in the last five years on advertisements in print and electronic media, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said on Thursday. Responding to a query raised in Rajya Sabha, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said the amount committed for advertisements by the government through print and electronic media during the period 2017-18 till date is Rs 2601.98 crore.

The data shared by the minister in his written response showed that in the last five years, the government spent around Rs 1654.57 crore on advertisements in print media. According to the figures, Rs 96.39 crore was spent on ads in 5608 newspapers in 2021-22 (till date), Rs 197.49 crore in 5211 newspapers in 2020-21, Rs 295.05 crore was spent on ads in 5326 newspapers in 2019-20, Rs 429.55 crore was spend on ads in 5631 newspapers in 2018-19 and Rs 636 crore was spend on ads in 6782 newspapers in the year 2017-18.

The minister said that Rs 479.61 crores was spent in government advertisements in 1318 television channels in the last five years and Rs 460.60 crores was spent on ads in 1694 FM radio channels. The government has spent Rs 7.20 crore through social media advertisements since 2017, he said.

PTI