The government spending on advertisement is nothing new. But a look at the recent past will make you realise that the amount has increased significantly. Mumbai-based RTI activist Anil Galgali had sought details from the Centre’s Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC) on all expenditure on advertisement in all media for the first term since the government assumed office. According to the Right To Information (RTI) report, the government spent Rs 3767.2651 crores in three financial years from 2016-17 till 2018-19.
According to HuffPost India, on June 17, I&B ministry told RTI activist Galgali that the government in its first term spent Rs 3767.2651 crores on advertisement from 2016-17 till 2018-19. While 11 days later, the ministry told BJP MP Ashok Mahadeorao Nete in the Lok Sabha that the government spent Rs 3,804.07 crores on the advertisement. Both the numbers had a discrepancy of Rs 36.8049 crores. The reason behind the discrepancy is the way both the questions were drafted. The only difference was Nete asked the expenditure on print, electronic, outdoor media including printed publicity, while Galgali asked the expenditure excluding printed publicity.
Akshay Deshmane, a Journalist at Huffpost India, in his series of tweets mentions that the Modi government has spent far more money on advertisement than it has disclosed so far.
Read the entire series here:
The Modi government in its first term has spent almost double the amount of money on advertisement as compared with the money spent by Manmohan Singh’s government. During ten years of the UPA regime from 2004-2014, Manmohan Singh government had spent a total amount of nearly Rs 2658 crore on the advertisement. According to National Herald's October 10, 2018 report, ‘during ten years of the UPA regime headed by Manmohan Singh from 2004-2014, the Central government had spent the total amount of nearly Rs 2,658 crore on advertisement and publicity.’
