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Govt does account juggling for India Shining: The Indian Express
New Delhi, Feb 13: Chief Election Commisssioner T S Krishnamurthy may have frowned upon the idea of spending taxpayers` money for advertising before elections but the Government obviously disagrees.
New Delhi, Feb 13: Chief Election Commisssioner T S Krishnamurthy may have frowned upon the idea of spending taxpayers’ money for advertising before elections but the Government obviously disagrees.
At a specially called meeting of financial advisers of all ministries and departments yesterday, it was decided that ministries which do not have enough funds under the ‘‘publicity head’’ be allowed to ‘‘re-appropriate’’ funds from other heads for this purpose.
To begin with, Rs 1 crore for each ministry.
Target: to cover the shortfall of nearly Rs 17 crore for the India Shining campaign by the Ministry of Finance and the India Development Initiative.
Clearly, with the EC preparing to announce poll dates which will kick in the model code of conduct—and, therefore, ban publicity on public money—the Government is in a hurry to rustle up the funds.
For the third phase of the campaign between February 2 to 16, an estimated Rs 17 crore has been set aside for publicity. The Ministries have been asked to provide content that focuses on their contribution to schemes and project in the states.
Said a senior Finance Ministry official: ‘‘There is nothing extraordinary in this. It happens every year and re-appropriation from revenue heads to revenue expenditure heads is very common It has nothing to do with elections.’’
The India Development Initiative was a head provided in last year’s Budget and was meant for ‘‘supporting overall, general and imaginative promotion of India, its trade and foster techno-economic and intellectual cooperation with other countries.’’
While the description in the Budget for 2003-04 itself shows that this publicity was meant more for building India’s image abroad, yet so far only Rs 87 lakh has been spent in advertising in the foreign media while the remaining part of the Rs 48.33 crore has been spent in impressing the Indian electorate.
The government had provided Rs 100 crore in last year’s Budget for this initiative. In the first two phases so far, Rs 48.33 crore has been spent — Rs 26.76 crore for DAVP, Doordarshan and All India Radio; Rs 16.36 crore for private TV channels, Rs 87 lakhs for foreign media, Rs 4.27 crore has been paid to the foreign advertising agency Grey Worldwide and nearly Rs 81 lakh for domestic ad agencies and website maintenance.
At a specially called meeting of financial advisers of all ministries and departments yesterday, it was decided that ministries which do not have enough funds under the ‘‘publicity head’’ be allowed to ‘‘re-appropriate’’ funds from other heads for this purpose.
To begin with, Rs 1 crore for each ministry.
Target: to cover the shortfall of nearly Rs 17 crore for the India Shining campaign by the Ministry of Finance and the India Development Initiative.
Clearly, with the EC preparing to announce poll dates which will kick in the model code of conduct—and, therefore, ban publicity on public money—the Government is in a hurry to rustle up the funds.
For the third phase of the campaign between February 2 to 16, an estimated Rs 17 crore has been set aside for publicity. The Ministries have been asked to provide content that focuses on their contribution to schemes and project in the states.
Said a senior Finance Ministry official: ‘‘There is nothing extraordinary in this. It happens every year and re-appropriation from revenue heads to revenue expenditure heads is very common It has nothing to do with elections.’’
The India Development Initiative was a head provided in last year’s Budget and was meant for ‘‘supporting overall, general and imaginative promotion of India, its trade and foster techno-economic and intellectual cooperation with other countries.’’
While the description in the Budget for 2003-04 itself shows that this publicity was meant more for building India’s image abroad, yet so far only Rs 87 lakh has been spent in advertising in the foreign media while the remaining part of the Rs 48.33 crore has been spent in impressing the Indian electorate.
The government had provided Rs 100 crore in last year’s Budget for this initiative. In the first two phases so far, Rs 48.33 crore has been spent — Rs 26.76 crore for DAVP, Doordarshan and All India Radio; Rs 16.36 crore for private TV channels, Rs 87 lakhs for foreign media, Rs 4.27 crore has been paid to the foreign advertising agency Grey Worldwide and nearly Rs 81 lakh for domestic ad agencies and website maintenance.