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Government

Modi Govt Spent Rs 713.20 Crore of Taxpayers’ Money on Ads Last Year, RTI Reveals

While Rs 295.05 crore was disbursed for print advertisements, Rs 317.05 crore was spent on electronic media and Rs 101.10 crore was paid for outdoor advertisements.

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government spent around Rs 713.20 crore of taxpayers’ money to promote itself through advertisements in newspapers, electronic media and hoardings etc over the last financial year.

Replying to an RTI query filed by activist Jatin Desai, the Bureau of Outreach and Communication under the ministry of information and broadcasting said that a whopping Rs 1.95 crore was spent per day, on an average, on advertisements between 2019-2020 by the Central government.

Providing the break-up of the total sum, the Bureau said while Rs 295.05 crore was disbursed for print advertisements, Rs 317.05 crore was spent on electronic media and Rs 101.10 crore was paid for outdoor advertisements. It, however, failed to furnish any information about the amount for advertisements spent by the government on publicity in foreign media.

In June 2019, in response to another RTI query by Mumbai-based Anil Galgali, the ministry had said that it had spent Rs 3,767.2651 crore of taxpayers’ money on print, electronic, outdoor media and printed publicity.

A year prior to it, in May 2018, yet another RTI reply to Galgali by the Ministry had revealed that the Modi government splurged Rs 4,343.26 crore on advertisement and publicity in media since the BJP government took over the reins in June 2014.