Budget 2016: 'Taxation’ the buzz-word followed by ‘Income Tax’ and ‘Service Tax’, says Google

BENGALURU: According to a latest Google release, Budget 2016 garnered significantly more attention this year in comparison to the budget presented by Jaitley in 2015 (which was his first 'full' budget).

'Taxation' was the buzz-word with 'Income Tax' and 'Service Tax' leading search interest. Interestingly queries on 'excise' were significantly higher than queries on Goods and Services Tax ( GST).

Search queries for 'Service Tax' largely emerged from India’s business centres such as Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu followed by Rajasthan, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

Queries on GST were primarily from four states - Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Excise linked queries were primarily led by Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat. However queries around 'Income Tax' were led by states such as Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.

The top searched political leaders during Budget Week week were Narendra Modi, Smriti Irani, Arun Jaitley and Suresh Prabhu.
Among the government’s flagship initiatives, ' Make in India' clearly basked in the spotlight, trailed marginally by search interest around the Aadhaar ( UIDAI) scheme and only then followed by 'Digital India' and 'Start-up India' respectively. The Aadhaar scheme received maximum queries from Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, while Maharashtra and Haryana topped the queries for 'Make in India.'

Finance Minister Jaitley’s sector specific initiatives also came in for high search interest. Education topped search interest followed by sectors such as finance, manufacturing, insurance, housing, defence and agriculture.

With regards to the budget, the 'infrastructure' sector received the least interest among the sectors. Government initiatives to promote foreign investment in the country came in for high interest. There was a five-times spike in 'FDI' related searches on budget day.

Which state searched what:

> Agriculture - Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, UP and Rajasthan.

> Housing - Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra.

> Infrastructure - Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka

> Insurance - Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Punjab.

> Education - Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand.