Railway advertisers seek waivers to bring business on track

The Federation of Advertising Agents of Indian Railways have sought waiver of license fee for one year and other concessions that will help the media concessionaires to bring their business back on the rails after the Covid19 crisis abatesThe newly constituted Federation of Advertising Agents of Indian Railways has approached Railway Minister Piyush Goyal with a charter of requestsThe Federation which has as its members Indias top railway advertising concessionaires holding exclusive rights on formats like hoardings railway station boards glowsigns LED screens video walls and Railway Display Networks RDN across railway zones has made a representation to the minister seekingWaiver of license fee on all existing contracts for a period one year from the date of enforcement of national lockdown This period may be considered as the period of recovery for the media operators who have been hit hard by the fallout of the COVID19 crisis and lockdownsReduction of security deposit provided by the concessionaires to an amount equivalent to two months of licensee fees This would provide the media operators with more working capital hand considering that they are mostly MSMEs operating with limited cashflowReduction in the security deposit to be provisioned in all railway advertising tenders to be floated in the futureMonthly payment of license fee under all existing railway advertising contractsCessation of escalation of annual license fee applicable under the existing contactsFacility for surrender of existing contracts and refund of security deposit and unused license fee in the event of a concessionaire being unable to operate the contracted media assets utilities owing to the negative fallout of the current crisisThe Federation has also requested and if required for constituting a Task Force that may look into the representation in a timebound manner It was also suggested that the Task Force may have three representatives from the Federation to review discuss study and resolve the appealThe Federation in its representation has highlighted that the railway media concessionaires have been collectively contributing nonfare revenues of Rs 350 crore to the Railways every year without the Railways incurring any significant expenditure toward the advertising activityIt was also cited that the members of the Federation through their business operations have created direct and indirect employment for over 1 lakh peopleThe Federation has requested to constitute a Task Force that may look into the representation in a timebound mannerThe Federation of Advertising Agents of Indian Railways has pointed to the sharp dip in advertising business in the wake of contraction of the national GDP and added that the squeeze of ad dollars will have immediate to mediumterm impacts on railway advertising businessThe Federations plea has been made on the premise that a compassionate and considerate assessment of the current situation of the railway advertising business backed with adequate waivers and safeguards will encourage the concessionaires to rebuild the business once normality returns while ensuring business continuity and passenger servicesIt would also encourage the concessionaires to stay invested in the rail media assets for the entire duration of the contracts that are in forceImportantly support from the Railways to the media operators at this juncture would also encourage this industry to proactively consider future investments in railway media and advertising opportunities when the overall business environment improvesCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news