Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on Thursday said the central government has spent over Rs 5,200 crore for advertisements published in electronic, print and other media since 2014, PTI reported.

The minister of state for information and broadcasting informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply to a question that the Centre spent Rs 979.78 crore in 2014-’15 and Rs 1,160.16 crore in 2015-’16. In 2016-’17, it spent Rs 1,264.26 crore and Rs 1,313.57 crore in 2017-’18. Till now in 2018-’19, the government has spent Rs 527.96 crore. In all, the government has spent more than Rs 5,245 crore in advertising, Rathore said.

Rathore also gave the break-up of the amount spent by the government through the Bureau of Outreach and Communication, a body set up after the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, the Directorate of Field Publicity, and the Song and Drama Division were merged last year. While Rs 2,282 crore was spent on print advertisements, Rs 2,312 crore was incurred on publicity through audio-visual media. The minister added that Rs 651 crore was spent on outdoor publicity.