Centre's advertising budget up by 84% since 2020-21: TMC quotes official data

Trinamool Congress on Monday flagged that there has been over 84 per cent increase in Union government's expenditure on advertisements between 2020-21 and 2024-25.

The party also attacked the government for not furnishing this information in Parliament, and stating instead that the figures were available on the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) website.

On 8 August in Rajya Sabha, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O'Brien had asked for details of the Union government's expenditure on advertisements and publicity campaigns in newspapers and television media in the last five years.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan said that the Central Bureau of Communication (CBC) issues advertisements on behalf of various ministries and departments, and details of this expenditure were available on the CBC's website www.davp.nic.in.

O'Brien slammed the government for not giving a reply.

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The TMC also collated and analysed the data from the website.

"This shaky Modi coalition has found another way to mock Parliament. Now, instead of giving answers directly during the Question Hour, they are directing the MPs to go visit websites. We went there and look what we found!" O'Brien told PTI.

TMC's analysis of the data on the DAVP website shows that the government spent Rs 349.24 crore on advertisements in 2020-21, which went down to Rs 274.87 crore in 2021-22. In 2022-23, the government spent Rs 347.38 crore on advertisements, which increased to Rs 656.08 crore in the pre-election year 2023-24. In 2024-25, the expenditure was Rs 643.63 crore.

"Startling figures that show how the PM (Prime Minister) has become PRM (Public Relations Minister). That and not tabling answers in Parliament. New lows," O'Brien said.

The total ad spent from 2020-21 till August 2025 is Rs 2,320.14 crore.

The average expenditure per year for 66 ministries is Rs 454 crore.