Penal provisions to ensure Govt ads only via DAVP

Penal provisions to ensure Govt ads only via DAVP

DAVP

NEW DELHI: Penal provisions should be put in place to discourage Ministries and Government Departments from issuing display advertisements directly to the media without routing them through the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP).

Severely reprimanding this trend, the Standing Parliamentary Committee for Information Technology has said that this violates Clause-3 of the Advertisement Policy of the Government, which provides that all Central Govt. Ministries/ Departments/ Attached & Subordinate Offices/ Field Offices shall route their advertisements, including display advertisements, through DAVP.

The Committee noted that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had time and again taken up the issue with the Ministries/Departments to route their advertisements through DAVP only to no avail.

The DAVP is the nodal multi media advertising central agency to execute publicity campaigns through advertisements etc. on behalf of various Ministries/Departments of Government of India, autonomous bodies and public sector undertakings.

It noted that the immediate fall out of such violation by the Ministries/Departments has resulted in small, medium and regional language newspapers not getting their due share. Many regional newspapers have been alleging favoritism by DAVP.

The Committee was also unhappy that total outstanding dues to DAVP from various Ministries/Departments of the Government of India is approximately Rs 630 million till 31 March this year.

The Committee have been informed that the Ministries/Departments pay their outstanding in the first quarter of the next financial year. Fresh outstanding also arise in the last quarter of the financial year, when the Letter of Authority issued by the Departments/Ministries lapses on 31 March. The Committee observed that the existing system of recovery of dues from Ministries/Departments is not prudent enough leading to huge amount of outstanding dues. Therefore, the Committee desire that DAVP should evolve a system whereby the Ministries/Departments may be asked to settle their dues within one month from the date of issue of letter of Intent.

Interestingly, the Committee was informed by the I&B Ministry that the Prime Minister’s office, the Planning Commission, and the Cabinet Secretariat etc. had been designated as non-paying departments and their expenditures were borne by the I&B Ministry.

Ministries and Departments are permitted to issue tender notices directly to empanelled newspapers only at DAVP rates. PSUs, Autonomous Bodies & Societies of the Central Government may issue all advertisements, directly at DAVP rates to empanelled newspapers, provided all classified and display advertisements are released in the following manner:

(In rupee terms)

Small 15% minimum

Medium 35% minimum

Big 50% maximum

English language 30% (approx.)

Hindi language 35% (approx.)

Regional and Other languages* 35% (approx.)

These include Bodo, Dogri, Garhwali, Kashmiri, Khasi, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Mizo, Nepali, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Urdu and Tribal languages as certified by State Governments.

The Committee noted with satisfaction that there had been near 100% utilization of RE funds by DAVP during the Eleventh Plan. The Committee hoped that the same trend will continue during the Twelfth Plan.

(Rs in million) 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
Proposed Outlay 282.5

228

59.3

530

545
B. E. 260.1

217.6

268.8

445

560
R. E. 184.1

481.8

368.8

445

887.9
Actual 184.1

481.9

368.1

328

757.7
%age of expenditure 100

100.02

99.81

73.89

85.34