Centre spent over Rs 3,723 crore on advertisements in 5 years, Rajya Sabha told

Rajya Sabha (File image)

The Government of India 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 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.