Guwahati, Mar 16 (PTI) The Assam government’s spending on advertisements has increased to over Rs 45 crore in 2021-22 financial year from more than Rs five crore in 2010-11, the state assembly was informed on Wednesday.
The annual expenditure on advertisements has been on an increasing trend between 2010-11 and 2021-22, except 2017-18 when the outlay was less than the previous year.
Information and Public Relations Minister Pijush Hazarika, in a reply to an unstarred question, said Rs 45,05,10,580 was spent on government advertisements through different media outlets in the 2021-22 fiscal.
The expenditure under the head in 2010-11 was Rs 5.20 crore, he said.
There has been a steady increase in the annual expenditure on government advertisements during the period under review, with 2017-18 being the lone exception, as per data submitted in the assembly.
Compared to the spending of over Rs 26.87 crore on government advertisements in 2016-17, it had come down to Rs 16.78 crore in 2017-18, the minister said.
He also said the newspaper advertisements are given as per the government’s policy, while the rate for those telecast through television channels is determined on the basis of satellite and non-satellite channel categories.
The information was laid before the assembly as the minister’s reply to the question by Congress MLA Abdul Batin Khandakar.
In response to separate questions, Hazarika said news portals are not registered with the state government and it is contemplating regulations for such online media outlets.
Currently, there are 106 registered print media organisations and 18 electronic media houses in the state, he added. PTI SSG BDC BDC
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Source: The Print
