Union Budget 2022 | ₹3,980 crore allocated for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 announced a ₹3,980.77-crore outlay for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the 2022-23 fiscal, a decrease of ₹90 crore from last year.

The allocation to the government’s autonomous body Prasar Bharati has been reduced to ₹2,555.29 crore from ₹2,640.11 crore allotted to it in the last fiscal.

Among other autonomous bodies, the Budget for only the Press Council of India was increased from ₹20 crore in the last fiscal to ₹27 crore this time.

The Films and Television Institute of India (FTII), Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Children’s Film Society of India and the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute saw reductions in their Budget allocation.

For the IIMC, the government has earmarked ₹52 crore, down from ₹65 crore allocated for 2021-22. The FTII’s Budget was reduced from ₹58.48 crore last year to ₹55.39 crore this year.

Union Budget 2022 highlights | Sharp hike in capital expenditure; no changes in Income Tax

In the Budget, the allocation for broadcasting under the social services head has gone down from ₹2,921.11 crore to ₹2,839.29 crore. There was also a reduction in the Budget for ‘information and publicity’ from ₹971.26 crore to ₹942.04 crore.

‘Information and publicity’ covers establishment expenditure of media units in the country such as the Bureau of Outreach and Communication, Press Information Bureau, Publications Division, New Media Wing, Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI), Films Division, National Film Archive of India, Electronic Media Monitoring Centre and others.

Union Budget 2022 | Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman raises wager on capex push for growth, jobs

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur hailed the Budget as “beneficial”, saying it was a blueprint to fulfil hopes and aspirations of a new India in the 100th year of its Independence.