DAVP yet to clear dues of Rs 148 cr for govt ads: Rajyavardhan Rathore

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore has informed Parliament that the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) is yet to pay total outstanding dues of Rs 148 crore to TV channels and print media.

According to the Minister, DAVP owes print media organisations across the country a sum of Rs 111.7 crore.

He further informed that the Directorate also owed a sum of Rs 35.94 crore to as many as 271 TV channels, including Colors, Zee TV, and Star Plus.

DAVP is the nodal agency to undertake multi-media advertising and publicity for various Ministries and Departments of Government of India. Some of the Autonomous Bodies also route their advertisements through DAVP.

Rathore informed Parliament that the payments to media organisations couldn’t be made on time as there was delay in the availability of funds. He added that bills of DAVP were sometimes not cleared in time by Ministries and Departments of the Government at the Centre as well as the States.