Ad Policies & Regulations

Lucknow media owners want business back on track

Earlier, the Nagar Nigam was swooping down on the media firms that did not pay up the advertisement tax in part or full, but after the GST subsumed the advertisement tax, the local urban body seemingly did not have a strong incentive to promote outdoor media in the city

Published

April 12, 2018

Bhawana Anand

Media owners in Lucknow are open to paying any alternative taxes to the Nagar Nigam so long as they are able to operate their existing outdoor media assets in the city or can gain new permissions for setting up media assets. Earlier, the Nagar Nigam was swooping down on the media firms that did not pay up the advertisement tax in part or full, but after the GST subsumed the advertisement tax, the local urban body seemingly did not have a strong incentive to promote outdoor media in the city. As a result, the whole industry is currently in a limbo. The Nagar Nigam is assessing the option of levying any alternative tax to buoy its revenues from advertising.

Jamal Khan, President of Lucknow Outdoor Advertising Association told Media4Growth: “We are discussing with the Nagar Nigam for obtaining permits to run the business and we have agreed in principle on paying any alternative taxes to the authority.” The industry fears that if the urban body does not find an alternative revenue source from the industry, they might just root out the outdoor media business itself.

This was reiterated by another media owner who said that the authority should at least renew the existing contracts.