Modi government spent Rs 900 crore on advertisements: Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the government has spent Rs 911.17 crore on advertisements in newspapers, television channels and websites in the last three years. He also informed in a written reply to a question that from the financial year 2019-20 to June 2022, the advertisements were paid by the Central Bureau of Communications.
Thakur said that the government spent Rs 295.05 crore on advertisements in 5,326 newspapers in 2019-20, Rs 197.49 crore on advertisements in 5,210 newspapers in 2020-21, Rs 179.04 crore on advertisements in 6,224 newspapers in 2021-22 and in June 2022-23. 19.25 crore was spent on advertisements in 1,529 newspapers till date.
According to him, during the same period, the government spent Rs 98.69 crore on advertisements in 270 television (TV) channels in 2019-20, Rs 69.81 crore on advertisements in 318 TV channels in 2020-21, advertisements in 265 news channels in 2021-22. Rs 29.3 crore and spent Rs 1.96 crore on advertisements in 99 TV channels till June 2022-23.
The minister said in a written reply to a question by Congress member Digvijay Singh that the government’s expenditure on advertisements on web portals was Rs 9.35 crore on 54 websites in 2019-20, Rs 7.43 crore on advertisements on 72 websites in 2020-21, 2021-22. 1.83 crore on advertisements in 18 websites and Rs 1.97 crore on 30 websites in 2022-23 till June.