The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has decided to ease norms of self-declaration certificate (SDC) for advertisers in a big relief for the advertisers. In an advisory issued on Wednesday, the Ministry stated that advertisements issued for products related to food and health sectors will be required to upload an annual self-certificate on the Broadcast Seva Portal and Press Council of India portal.

This advisory supersedes all previous advisories by the Ministry, which means the mandate of SDC has been limited to only the food and health sectors, industry sources pointed out.

Proof of SDC

“In light of the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, and in supersession of previous Advisories dated 03.06.2024 and 05.06.2024, advertisers/advertising agencies issuing advertisement for products and services related to Food and Health sectors are advised to upload an annual self-declaration certificate” on the portals, the I&B Ministry stated. It added that advertisers and ad agencies need to “make available the proof of uploading the self-declaration to the concerned media stakeholders, such as TV channels, newspapers, entities involved in publishing of advertisements on the internet, etc. for the record.”

So far, advertisers and ad agencies across sectors were mandatorily required to upload a self-declaration certificate before releasing any new ads. These norms had come into force on June 18.

However, various ad and media industry bodies had urged the Ministry to limit the mandate of SDCs for only health and food sectors. They had also suggested that uploading of SDC should be required to be done only once a year and not for every advertisement released.

“It is clarified that it shall be the responsibility of the advertisers/advertising agencies to ensure that every advertisement being issued by them is in adherence to the applicable Indian laws, rules and regulations in letter and spirit,” the I&B Ministry added in its advisory. 

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