TMC MP Mahua Moitra seeks details on govt’s ad spend in media

Moitra, who represents Krishnanagar constituency of West Bengal, said: “We want to know what is the break-up of the ad spend via media houses and if certain print media are being excluded.”

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Mahua Moitra. (Express)

Trinamool Congress member Mahua Moitra on Thursday sought to know details of media advertising by the government.

Flagging the matter during Zero Hour, Moitra, who represents Krishnanagar constituency of West Bengal, said: “We want to know what is the break-up of the ad spend via media houses and if certain print media are being excluded.”

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She said, “In December 2018, the then Minister for Information and Broadcasting (Rajyavardhan Singh) Rathore said on the floor of the House that the government, from the years 2014 till December 2018, had spent approximately Rs 5,246 crore on advertising. This was only the central government’s expenditure. It does not include public sector undertaking expenditure, which, I believe, forms the bulk of it. Given that this is the taxpayers’ money and what the PSUs are spending is also the taxpayers’ money, we need to have a better idea (of) what the total advertising spending is.”

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Moitra said: “You can see, in 2014-15 it was Rs 979 crore, which went up to about Rs 1,300 crore in 2017-18.” She named five media organisations and said they were “either owned or indirectly debted to one person”.

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