What did India search for on the Budget Day?

Gold dominates searches on Budget

Tax rates, gold and employment were the most-searched categories among the many Budget announcements made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23, according to an analysis of Google Trends.

The finance minister, in her Budget speech, cut the customs duty on gold by 6 percent while also announcing initiatives on employment, housing, and personal income tax.

While the interest was focussed on employment and jobs as Sitharman started her speech, attention shifted to income tax, gold, and mobile phones as the finance minister’s speech unfolded, according to a Moneycontrol analysis of search trends.

The trends also showed regional variations. For instance, Northeastern states, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, were more concerned about employment than Goa, Karnataka and Delhi, which showed greater interest in capital gains tax.

The government increased the long-term capital gains tax to 12.5 percent while removing indexation benefits for properties purchased after 2001.

On the other hand, people in Jharkhand, Goa and Chandigarh were more interested in income tax on the Budget Day.

The Google Trends data, which covers the past 24 hours, shows that the country’s IT hubs, Karnataka, Haryana, Goa, and Delhi, were more interested in the new tax regime. These states topped the trends in search for these and related topics.

The new tax regime has been sweetened with more slab relaxations and an increase in the standard deduction to Rs 75,000 from Rs 50,000 earlier. Sitharaman noted that the changes will reduce each individual’s tax burden by Rs 17,500.

Gold was the most searched term by people across the country in the 24 hours from 08:50am on July 23, with Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Punjab topping the chart.

People in the North East, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were more interested in mobile phones, which saw a cut in customs duty.