New Delhi: The directorate of advertising and visual publicity (DAVP), the nodal agency for releasing advertisements on behalf of Union ministries and central departments, spent Rs1,190.53 crore on advertising and publicity in the year ended 31 March, the government said on Wednesday.

That compares with the Rs998.34 crore the government spent in the previous fiscal year.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, minister of state for information and broadcasting (I&B) Rajyavardhan Rathore, said that the total expenditure includes all mediums—newspapers, audio-visual, print, outdoor and exhibition.

ALSO READ: Govt spending Rs10 crore on demonetisation awareness ads

“This includes tender, classified, display classified, UPSC and all other advertisements released through DAVP on the various government schemes, besides flagship welfare schemes," Rathore said.

Out of the Rs1,190.53 crore, Rs510.53 crore was spent on print media, while Rs531.60 crore was spent on electronic media. DAVP spent Rs120.34 crore on outdoor publicity and the rest of the expenditure was incurred on exhibitions and printed publicity.

For 2014-15, it had spent Rs998.34 crore for advertising and publicity—out of which Rs424.84 crore was spent on print media and Rs473.67 crore on electronic media.

In June, the I&B ministry had introduced a new print media policy under which the government said that it would check the circulation figures of newspapers and periodicals and get them verified with the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) or Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) before releasing official ads to them.

In May, the ministry had also released policy guidelines for online advertising by the government. According to the policy, the government will consider the unique monthly visitors of websites and check if they are locally operated for empanelling them.

According to a Mint report dated 18 November, the government was spending Rs10 crore to promote its demonetization drive

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