Centre yet to pay Rs 215.82 crore in pending advertisements bills

The Centre is yet to pay Rs 215.82 crore for advertisements it placed in various media platforms with the print media topping the list with Rs 147.73 crore, according to response to a Right to Information Act query.

The figure would rise to Rs 232.82 crore if one adds Rs 17.74 crore pending bills to outdoor publicity agencies.

These details, which are part of response given under Right to Information Act, 2005 to law student Aniket Gaurav, shows that there are 76,434 pending bills with respect to print media, out of which the oldest one was dated 4 August, 2004.

The RTI response from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting showed that there were pending bills to the tune of Rs 67.34 crore to electronic media.

Follow live updates from the Parliament here

Among the central ministries, the Ministry of Defence is the highest defaulter when it comes to print media. Its 12,271 bills worth Rs 16.19 crore are pending.

The Ministry of Finance emerged second with 6,668 pending bills worth Rs 13.06 crore to print media while the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting owed Rs 9.99 crore in 4,876 bills to print media.

Another big defaulter is the Department of Higher Education, which has 5,881 unpaid bills of Rs 9.36 crore, followed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which has 5,634 unpaid bills worth Rs 8.63 crore.

On electronic media, RTI said a full list of the number of outstanding bills was not readily available.