Agra media owners sees no reason in civic body’s steep ad tax target

Even as the Agra Nagar Nigam targets a record Rs 25 crore ad tax revenues in 2018-19 and charts plans to do away with hoardings in the city, outdoor media owners assert that the civic body’s plan to hike the ad tax revenue target will be counter-productive to the interest of the industry as well as the civic authority. At the same time the media owners are appreciate of the civic body’s efforts to bring in unipoles in the city in place of hoardings, in keeping with the aesthetics of the city layout.

Impractical target for a B category city

Gaurav Agarwal, MD, Agarwal Advertisement Bureau clearly states that the revenue target is unrealistic for a B category city. “The market has drastically collapsed after the implementation of the GST and in that scenario when the business is pretty low, it will be impossible for any media owner to pay such hefty amount of license fee or taxes,” says Gaurav.

This is going to be a repeat of the Railway tender scenario whereby local players couldn’t participate in the tender owing to a huge base price, he adds.

In a similar vein, Amerish Nath, Director, Frank Advertisers, says, “We had presented a proposal to the high officials of the Nagar Nigam giving a commitment to Rs 10-11 crore of tax revenues; however, they are dreaming big from OOH. They have failed to analyse the market situation. They are trying to copy the strategy of metro cities where the growth and possibilities are immense but in a city like Agra, the media value can’t grow from 1 to 10 overnight”.

“There are two ways to evaluate the tender process — Financial and Technical — wherein the Nagar Nigam has analysed the latter part but they need to understand that the tender should be financially stable to attract the participation,” he says.

Unipoles — a good move

The media owner feels that bringing a new format will surely bring some freshness in the market both in terms of business and outlook of the city.

“Provision for unipoles is a positive step from the authority towards the Smart City and we welcome it,” expresses Gaurav. Likewise, Amerish gives the surety of participation in the tender and says “Since it is being done to remove the clutter we will support the authority in making it successful.