Furnish advt bills immediately for release of payment: DIPR to Newspapers

Jammu: The Department of Information & Public Relations (DIPR) has asked all the approved newspapers and other periodicals to furnish the advertisement bills of the current financial year immediately for release of payment before the fiscal closure.
“The newspapers and other periodicals which have not submitted the advertisement bills of the current year as yet may furnish the same immediately for release of payment before the current financial year ends,” said a Circular issued by the Director Information & PR, Muneer-ul-Islam.
“In case of any delay in submission of advertisement bills by the newspapers, the responsibility shall be with the respective newspaper managements,” the Circular said.
According to the Circular, the payment of advertisement bills is being made according to the rates notified vide Government Order No: 26-ID of 2013 dated: 07.08.2013 read with Endorsement No: ID/A/30/77-1 dated: 31.01.2018. The revised advertisement rates notified vide Government Order No. 48-ID of 2017 dated: 23.11.2017 are pending implementation as the Categorization of the newspapers is under process.
As per the Circular, the Joint Directors of Information, Kashmir/Jammu have been asked to ensure that the advertisement bills pending in their respective offices are cleared forthwith and no liabilities on this count, in any case, are carried over to the next financial year.
The Director Information, as per the Circular, has sought report on daily basis about clearance/verification of advertisements bills, budgeted as well as non-budgeted.
Pertinently, the Government has earmarked a budget allocation of Rs 30 crore for newspapers and other periodicals on account of government advertisements for the current financial year. The Government has during the past three years increased the Advertisement Budget considerably from Rs 22 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 30 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 35 crore for 2018-19.