Government has spent a total of Rs. 3,723.38 crore on advertisement of its policies and programmes over the past five years through the Central Bureau of Communication, Rajya Sabha (Upper House) was informed on Thursday.

In a written reply, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the expenditure on advertisements and publicity has not increased over the past five years.

According to the data shared by the government, Rs.1,220.89 crore was spent on advertisements in 2017-18, while an expenditure of Rs. 1,106.88 crore was incurred in 2018-19, which was ahead of the general elections of 2019.

The government spent Rs. 627.67 crore in 2019-20; Rs. 349.09 crore in 2020-21 and Rs. 264.78 crore in 2021-22, Thakur said.

In the current financial year, the government has spent Rs.154.07 crore on advertisements till December 9, he said.

“As per the above data, expenditure on advertisement and publicity has not increased in the last few years,” Thakur said in response to a question by Congress member Syed Nasir Hussain.

Hussain had asked whether the government was aware that the spending on advertisement and publicity had increased manifold in the last few years, a PTI report stated.

Meanwhile, NewsOnAIR in a dispatch stated Thakur, in reply to another query from a fellow parliamentarian, added the government is laying emphasis on ease of doing business and ease of compliance in the broadcasting sector.

In reply to supplementaries during question hour in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister said that earlier there were separate guidelines for uplinking and downlinking, but now there is single guideline for them.

He further informed that now there is no requirement of taking permission for live telecast and only pre-registration is needed, adding a guideline has also been issued for adopting modern technology in the broadcasting sector.