Cbc: Congress, BJP clash over Centre’s budget on advertising | India News

NEW DELHI: The main opposition Congress party and the ruling BJP on Thursday clashed over the Centre’s expenditure on advertising and publicity. While the Congress alleged that the central government was indulging in “misappropriation” of funds, the BJP retorted by stating that it is a usual practice in the government of India.
Highlighting the matter of budget for advertising and publicity, Congress MP and general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh, in a tweet, said Parliament votes budgets for all departments and ministries of the government of India. Each programme and scheme has a distinct budget head.
He alleged that on May 19, in an unprecedented move, the ministry of finance ordered that 40% of the funds voted by Parliament for ‘Advertising and Publicity’ in various departments and ministries should be placed at the disposal of the Central Bureau of Communications (CBC) in the ministry of information and broadcasting.
Ramesh said the CBC’s budget for 2023-24 approved by Parliament is Rs 200 crore. With the May 19 order of the ministry of finance, the budget for CBC for the current year will suddenly zoom to more than Rs 750 crore, he added.
He said, “Clearly this CBC (along with CBI and ED) will be the spearhead of the Modi government’s election campaign for 2024.”
The Congress leader accused CBC of being a super czar dancing to the tune of the “PM alias Prachar Mantri”. “But this propaganda machine did not have enough funds. Now with this surgical strike, just like the 40% commission sarkara dislodged in Karnataka, the Modi government usurps 40% of funds already allocated to ministries by Parliament and enriches the CBC. Is this not de facto misappropriation?” he said.
The Rajya Sabha MP said, “This directive is a further subversion of Parliament’s constitutional obligations. It not only ignores the expertise of specific ministries but it wholly undermines the sanctity of the budget voted by Parliament. Normally, the government of India is referred to as the central government. Under Mr Modi, it has become a central(ised) propaganda machine.”
Congress Lok Sabha MP and spokesperson Manish Tewari termed the development as “totally illegal”.
He said, “This is hilarious. How can the ministry of information and broadcasting, by an executive order, get spending rights on 40% of publicity budgets appropriated by Parliament under separate line items specific to each ministry. This is totally illegal. It is obvious that government publicity funds would be abused for political purposes in an election year.”
BJP’s response
Replying to Ramesh’s allegations, BJP co-in-charge of West Bengal Amit Malviya explained the technicalities involved and said it was a usual government practice.
Malviya tagged Ramesh’s tweet and said, “Here is your tutorial for the day. It is a usual practice in the government of India, where one ministry allocates funds to another, from its own budget.”
He said for example, Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is given funds, through a Letter of Authorisation (LoA), ‘in advance’ by different line ministries for building maintenance, repairs and construction under major works and minor works’ object head. At times, the advance is 100%.
Malviya, who is also the head of BJP’s information and technology department, said CBC is a 360 degrees communication solutions provider for the government of India and its entities. It acts as an advisory body to the government on media strategy and aims at branding the government as a facilitator of people’s empowerment.
He said CBC uses various vehicles of communication such as print, audio-visual, outdoor, digital and new media, exhibitions, folk and traditional forms, to disseminate information about the government’s policies and programmes.
“The move to request advance LoAs is, therefore, not unprecedented in the government of India. It was done even during UPA, check the letter issued in 2013,” he said, referring to the time when the Congress-led UPA government was in power.
Malviya said, “Any person, with basic common sense, would get an idea of why this has been done, after reading Para 4 of the OM (order of merit).”
Advance payment, he said, has been sought so that there is transparent accounting and no reconciliation issues in the government accounts. As mentioned in the letter, it will lead to better reconciliation of transactions as prescribed in Para 8.5 of Chapter 8 of civil accounts manual pertaining to the settlement of ‘Interdepartmental Transactions’.
Taking a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Malviya said, “I understand, with Rahul Gandhi at the helm of affairs in the Congress, it is natural that logic and common sense will take a nosedive.”