Noida waives off ₹1.4 cr advertising fee of businessmen

NOIDA: The Noida authority has waived off ₹1.4 crore as advertising rights’ fee of about 100 businessmen because they faced financial crisis during the Covid-19

NOIDA: The Noida authority has waived off ₹1.4 crore as advertising rights’ fee of about 100 businessmen because they faced financial crisis during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The authority was supposed to collect the fees from at least 100 businessmen who had taken space from the authority for the financial year 2019-20. In response to the authority’s notices sent to recover the advertising rights’ fee, the businessmen sought exemption for the lockdown period.

In view of demands, the authority has decided not to collect the fees applicable for the period between March 22 and June 30, 2020 out of their total licence fees, officials said.

The Noida authority was able to rake in ₹14 crore and ₹18 crore through outdoor advertising during 2017-18 and 2019-20.

“₹1 crore was the licence fees that had to be collected and the remaining ₹40 lakh was the accrual interest amount due to non-payment. But now complete waiver will be offered to the advertisers for the lockdown period. We will revise our books to take haircut of about ₹1.40 crore due to this decision,” said Indu Prakash Singh, officer on special duty, Noida authority.

But the waiver will be given only if the advertisers settle their dues by January 31, 2021.

A spokesperson from Vani Advertising said, “We are happy with the move of the authority because the pandemic has shattered our business.”

The city has a total of 133 licensed unipole operators at present. Among them, 115 have been installed at public toilets while the other 18 digital hoardings and wraps have been put up over 18 foot over bridges across the city. The 133 unipoles were given out as per build-operate-transfer model in the past and the license fees was revised last time in April 2018.