Government departments owe around Rs 80 crore to Doordarshan for advertisements

Government departments owe around Rs 80 crore to Doordarshan for advertisements

NEW DELHI: Public broadcaster Doordarshan has reported a revenue of Rs 1295.86 crore in 2013-14 from advertisements. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar has said that the revenue in the current year till 31 May was Rs 87.76 crore.

 

He told Parliament today that the advertisement revenue in 2012-13 was Rs 1298.16 crore, as against Rs 1100.27 crore in 2011-12.

 

The Minister also clarified that there was no proposal to put any restriction on carrying government ads on the public broadcaster, even as he said various central and state government departments and public sector undertakings owe huge sums to Doordarshan.

 

Javadekar said that various central and state government departments and PSUs owed Rs 79,66,30,752 as on 31 May this year to the pubcaster.

 

The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, a media unit of the Ministry, owes an amount of Rs 6,94,91,429 to Doordarshan.

 

He said this pertains to the advertisements released in the last quarter of 2013-14. However, Javadekar also said, “It is a normal process of bill settlement.”