The congress-ruled Rajasthan government has launched a program to use social media influencers’ reach to promote its work. OpIndia accessed the notification issued by the Rajasthan Government in this regard. As per the June 26 notification, influencers can earn anywhere between Rs 10,000 to Rs 5 lakh, depending on their popularity, by publishing government advertisements. The announcement came at a time when the BJP-ruled central government is under attack for approaching influencers for the promotion of significant schemes, without offering them money.
Criteria for getting advertisements
As per the report, the influencers with over 10,000 followers on any social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, can get advertisements from the Rajasthan government.
The Rajasthan government has divided influencers into four categories. Furthermore, the government will check the six-month records of the influencers. Apart from the pre-defined categories, the committee formed to overlook the program can give advertisements to those who have high followership but may or may not fall into any category.
Suppose an influencer has 10 lakh or one million followers or subscribers; then he or she can earn a maximum of Rs 5 lakh. Similarly, with 5 lakh followers or subscribers, influencers can make up to 2 lakhs; for 1 lakh subscribers, the amount can go up to 50 thousand and for 10,000 followers, the influencer can earn up to Rs 10,000.
For Facebook and Instagram influencers, the price per reel or post has been set between Rs 1,000 and Rs 10,000. If someone posts a 10-second post reel, a post, three photos and three videos on Twitter, he or she can earn anywhere between Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000, depending on the number of followers.
Notably, the payment to the influencers will be released only if the posts have at least 5 per cent reach. That means if you have 100 followers, the ad must reach at least 5; otherwise, you will not get paid. The influencer also has to provide analytic data on the social media handle. Influencers will be required to put advertisement tags when needed.
The BJP-ruled central government is under attack for approaching influencers
Interestingly, while Congress approached social media influencers to promote the state government’s work and an official scheme by way of which they can get paid for it, the left-liberals and opposition have attacked the union government for merely talking to influencers without giving them money to promote their work. Despite clarification from the influencers like Viraj Sheth (Beer Biceps co-founder) that there was no money involved in interviewing union ministers, they are getting criticised for being “Governments’ mouthpieces”.
Alt News’ co-founder Mohammed Zubair had attacked Akshat Shrivastava for criticising Congress-ruled Karnataka government’s freebies. He insinuated that just two days after meeting MEA Dr S Jaishankar, Shrivastava published a video against the Karnataka Government. In reality, Shrivastava had published multiple videos criticising freebie culture as a whole. AltNews’ Zubair and other Liberals and Islamists were basically insinuating that some influencers are praising the union govt or promoting their work while sometimes criticising Congress because they were being paid by BJP to do so, thereby, taking away from the credibility of their opinions. Interestingly, even after clarification from the influencers themselves, they continued their attack to discredit the influencers and the good work being done by the Modi govt. The very people who made such insinuations without proof are now silent about Congress officially offering money to these influencers to praise the Congress government and its work.
Influencers under the IT department’s scanner
Reportedly, the Income Tax department has put several influencers under scanner for not disclosing their income. Recently, the government announced that the influencers had to pay taxes on the freebies they get from the companies, including airfare, accommodation, free samples for testing and review, and more. In the case of sample products, if the influencer keeps the product, only then do they have to pay the tax. As per the Business Standard report, 15 influencers have been sent notices by the IT department.
The list includes a lifestyle and fitness coach, a high-profile fashion influencer, a travel influencer and an influencer who publishes information on Bollywood. Three of these influencers never filed returns, while others underreported them. Other 30 influencers are also under the department’s watch.
Giving an example of the discrepancies in income, an IT department official said that the fashion influencer who hails from Mumbai charges around Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 for a single endorsement. The official said, “After receiving over Rs 30 lakh for various posts from a single company, the influencer had declared an annual income of just Rs 3.5 lakh.”