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Home » OOH News » Torrent Advertisers reaches out to East Coast Railways with license fee waiver and other pleas

Torrent Advertisers reaches out to East Coast Railways with license fee waiver and other pleas

By Ria Banerjee - May 18, 2020

The Bhubaneswar-based OOH firm has also approached the municipal bodies for payment of dues in instalments

In the light of the ongoing national lockdown that has left a staggering impact causing a huge financial crises in the nationwide outdoor industry as a fallout of the Covid-19 where the rail media owners’ federation has pleaded the Rail Minister regarding waiving of license fees and other concessions that will help the media owners bring back their business,

Bhubaneswar-based Torrent Advertisers that holds exclusive media rights in the exterior premises of Sambalpur, Balasore and some 30 railway stations in the Puri-Palaka stretch of southern Odisha has approached the East Coast Railways with the plea for a waiver of license fee payment on all its existing contracts for a period of one year from the date of enforcement of the national lockdown.

The firm has also requested the railway authorities for (i) a reduction of the security deposits for its existing contracts to an amount equivalent to two months of license fees, which will provide more working capital in hand; (ii) reduction in the security deposit to be provisioned in all railway advertising tenders to be floated in future; (iii) monthly payment of license fees under all its existing railway advertising contracts; (iv) and cessation of escalation of annual license fees applicable under the existing contracts.

In its representation to the railway authorities, the OOH firm has highlighted the challenges that they face in regard to payment of (i) salaries to the employees, (ii) license fee, (iii) maintenance charges, (iv) electricity charges, (v) interest repayments and loans, and (vi) other administrative and operational charges without any business earnings.

Commenting on this situation, Niranjan Dash, Managing Partner, Torrent Advertisers and Executive Member, Odisha Outdoor Advertising Association shared, “We have made an appeal to the railway authority and the urban municipal bodies of Bhubaneshwar on behalf of the outdoor media industry operating in the state for waiving off license fees from March 15 for a period of one year, and for charging dues in instalments respectively unless the situation becomes normal. No directions have been laid down by the government authorities for this industry.”

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