Mizzima News

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Private advertising firms in Rangoon said, they are faced with severe losses as the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) Engineering Department (Building) has started to auction off billboard sites.

Earlier, the ad industry had to seek permission from the civic body and paid fees based on the size and site of the billboard in addition to annual fees. The system has been changed to that of auctioneering from early clients incurring losses.

"Earlier, the costs revolved around billboard size in terms of square feet. Now they have changed it to per board system based on the site. Competitive bidding pushed up the price to Kyat 15-16 million. In some places the bidding touched Kyat 20 to 30 million [approximately USD 15,384 to 2,3076]," the Managing Director from Foodstuff and Tyre Advertising Company, who wished not to be named, told Mizzima.

In the past, they had to pay only Kyat 1.5 million [USD 1,153] for each billboard to the municipal body. Now it has skyrocketed up to Kyat 15 million [USD 11,538] after the bidding system was introduced.

"Our professional advertisers cannot afford to pay such high prices and we are badly hit," he added.

The advertising company had to spend about Kyat 5 million [USD 3,846] for putting up each small billboard.

The advertising firms requested the civic body not to increase the fees and taxes but the civic body rejected their plea.

Over 100 billboard sites have been auctioned off and some of the existing billboards have to be removed.

"Six of our billboards were included in this auction, one each in Sule and Myenigone and other four on bridges. They have removed all six by revoking the permission. We did not get other places as substitutes," the MD said.

Similarly another famous advertising company lost 20 billboards in the auction. It is learnt that they are trying to reclaim them from the civic body.

"I was present on the day of the auction. The municipality showed the sites of the billboards on auction. And then if customers of these billboards could prove these were theirs, the civic body deleted these sites from their auction list," the MD said.

The advertising companies are still wondering how to handle the current crisis.

"Our customers are in the wait and see mode on how to advertise. It has been just two weeks. We are still wondering how to handle the current crisis," the MD said.