Social Buzz on Union Budget 2017

6 February 2017 Proprietary and Confidential

Time-Frame: 26th Jan – 2nd Feb

© 2017 Blueocean Market Intelligence 2

Union Budget 2017 was reacted upon positively from social users, calling it ‘progressive’ and up to some extent ‘game-changing’

Top Trending Topics

Agriculture and Farmer Welfare

Railway Budget

Demonetization/Digital Economy

Personal Finance (Tax Slabs)

20 %

13 %

14 %

22 % 93% 4% 3%

92% 2% 6%

94% 4% 2%

94% 2% 4%

Infrastructure 10 %

97% 2% 1%

• Sense of disappointment over lack of any major announcement/incentive after demonetization; other tax rebate for salaried employees

• Negative conversations were around lack of focus on direct job creations, tax on banking transactions & no rebate in transaction charges to promote digital economy

• Exemption of tax for individuals earning up to 3LPA • Reduction of existing rate of taxation from 10% to

5% (the lowest tax bracket) for all individuals, thereby providing a benefit of up to INR 12,500 to all tax payers has been applauded

• The government’s new approach to use data mining to catch tax evaders and focus on digital transactions to curb black money was much appreciated by the audience

Neutral Positive Negative

Source: Twitter, Facebook, Blog & News website

Trending Topic Insights

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Taxation and demonetization dominated overall chatter

• Discussions around how Budget 2017 proposal will impact the economy after demonetization

• The 'Digi Gaon' initiative to promote tele-medicine and education will propel the country towards digital future was positively appreciated.

• The proposed cash transaction limit at ₹ 3 lakh was touted as a positive step towards curbing black money

• Transparency in political funding and recommendation to accept payments through digital means were debated • Positive buzz on withdrawal of service charge on e-Rail tickets, bio-toilets in

all coaches by 2019 and merger of Railway Budget with the General Budget • Discussion around:

• announcement of IRCTC and IRCON will help raise funds for railway • allocation of fund for safety in rail • 3,500 km railway lines to be commissioned in 2017 • new metro rail policy which will create new jobs for youth and end

to end transport solutions

• Discussions around : • more credit to farmers, • irrigation fund doubled from last year • provision of separate electricity supply for farm & agriculture under

Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana • Experts appreciated Government’s move for allocation of ₹ 3.96 lakh crore

budget on infrastructure • Traction around

• 100% electrification of all village by May 2018 • airlines getting tax cut for small towns; • budget allocation increase by 12% than last year to build new

highways

Agriculture and Farmer Welfare

Demonetization/Digital Economy

Railway Budget

Infrastructure

• Buzz on Income tax rate cut to 5%(in the lowest tax bracket) for all income levels and increase on surcharge for high income group

• Salaried sector employees are dissatisfied and were expecting more tax exemptions

• People with income > 50 Lakhs were feeling disappointed and burdened

Personal Finance

20 %

14 %

13 %

10%

22 %

4

Gender Split

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Demographic analysis: Profession and gender

Overall buzz were driven by males. Highlight of female related conversations : • Women activists

welcomed the Union Government’s decision to increase the allocation for women and children welfare from ₹ 1.56 lakh crore to ₹ 1.84 lakh crore

• Females are considering

it a good move to give ₹ 6000 to a pregnant woman to reduce maternal mortality

32% 17% 15% 12% 10%

0%

50%

Journalists Senior Executives Professionals* Education Industry** Artists

• Overall buzz was driven by the Journalists where they gave their views/analysis/key takeaway on budget 2017

• IT /Marketing /Sales Professionals were talking about GST & tax rebate given to salaried employees

• Metro cities: • 48% of buzz in Delhi was driven by Professionals • Students, Senior Executives & Artists were more

vocal in Mumbai as compared to Delhi

• Highlight of Mumbai associated buzz (by professions):

• Education Industry: Mentioned that budget 2017 will give relief to tax payers, paves way for promotion of skill based education & youth employment, will boost rural economy & MSMEs which have suffered most post demonetization

• Senior Executives: Impact of Budget on startups/SMEs, affordable housing, tax rebate for SME’s, Bharat net project were the most discussed topic

• Artists: Around 10% of artists were talking about allocation of fund for MGNREGA scheme and no cash transactions above ₹3Lakh to curb on black money. They are optimistic towards union budget 2017

Profession Mumbai Delhi

Students 50% 35%

Senior Executives 42% 38%

Artists 54% 29%

4 *Professionals-IT/Sales/Marketing/PR **Education Industry – Scientists / Researchers / Teachers /Students

% of conversations across Professions

5

% of conversations across different States

© 2017 Blueocean Market Intelligence

Demographic analysis: Geography and top hashtags

• 69% of Union Budget 2017 conversations were generated by Delhi, Maharashtra & Karnataka

• Political analysts & Journalists shared their interpretations on how Union Budget 2017 will impact economy & next month election in 5 states

• Out of the total conversations from West Bengal, 12% were around West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee criticizing the Union Budget 2017, however most of the people are

disappointed with Mamta’s reaction and they have overwhelmingly supported Union Budget 2017

• In Poll bound states Goa & Uttrakhand Sentiment observed around union budget 2017 was mixed in social media whereas in Punjab 80% of buzz were positive

• Buzz in Punjab is driven by congratulatory message to Prime Minister & Finance Minister for great emphasis on Digital India, rural

development & infra

• 16 % of total mentions in Uttar Pradesh, were on Akhilesh Yadav wrote a letter to PM Narendra Modi for unfair General budget

• However, overall sentiment around union budget in UP is positive. Thumbs up to Union Budget from Agra Footwear Industry. Lack of initiative taken by government for farmer to waive off their loan was criticized

32% 30%

7% 6% 5% 5% 3% 2% 2%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Delhi Maharashtra Karnataka AndhraPradesh

Tamil Nadu West Bengal Gujarat Haryana UttarPradesh

Most used Hashtags All Tweets Impressions

#budget2017 96386 7473 M

#economicsurvey 8076 579 M

#unionbudget2017 7164 307 M

#askyourfm 6897 116 M

#budgetforbetterindia 5069 375 M

Audience Engagement Trends

5

Post Budget 2017 Pre Budget 2017

• GST: Out of the total conversation for Good and Service Tax, 42% expected GST Model Law to be passed in #Budget2017 to create a common Indian market, enhance tax compliance, and boost commercial growth.

• 24% of the people emphasized that Railway Budget 2017 should focus on safety and infrastructure development due to frequent accidents; announcement of new trains; adaptation of flat fare instead of flexi fares.

• Out of the total conversations around agriculture sector before Union Budget 2017, only 4% of the audience was vocal about the expectations for farmers in the Budget, which included :

– relief for farmers to compensate their demonetization pain,

– farm insurance,

– preventing farmer suicides,

– reformed policies for farmers.

• Economic survey’s strong pitch for implementing Universal Basic Income contributed to 60% of the conversation

• Around 40% of the audience appreciated Arvind Subramanian for using Big Data in economic survey for policy analysis and studying migration within India.

• 14% of the chatter around expectation from Union Budget 2017 majorly were service tax exemption on transactions and health sector; lower tax slab, affordable housing, employment generation.

© 2017 Blueocean Market Intelligence 6

• 58% of the post budget discussion appreciated that the goods and service tax implementation in the Union Budget 2017 will widen the base of indirect and direct taxes with Data mining adaption.

• However, post the release of Union Budget 2017, mixed reactions came out, wherein 23% supported Government for friendly budget and its step for limiting cash to 2k for political parties, while others blamed the government for not putting enough emphasis on demonetization

• Budget 2017 is considered to be pro farmers budget because government has focused on farm credit, irrigation schemes and crop insurance segments for facilitating the farming operations.

• Post the announcement of the budget, around 40% audience questioned as to why Universal Basic Income was not taken into consideration to curb corruption, eradicate poverty and make subsidies reach poor effectively

• Post the revelation of the Union Budget 2017, government announced to use machine learning and data mining to catch tax evaders, was seen as a progressive step to expand the tax net by 60% of the audience

• Post the union budget, around 86% of the audience positively spoke about IT exemption to startups and on home loan, affordable housing, MSMEs tax breaks, Income tax rate cut from 10% to 5% for individual tax payers earning under INR 5 lakh per annum

Pre versus post budget 2017 conversation trends

Railway (Pre/ Post)

• 45% of the conversation showed that announcement about:

– bio-toilets;

– commission railway lines of Rs 3,500 kilometers and

– end-to-end integrated transport solutions was much appreciated as people didn’t expect such reforms in the union budget 2017

Agriculture (Pre/Post)

• The statement by P Chidambaram on how farmers' community have been completely cheated by Mr. Arun Jaitley didn’t receive any support from the social audience.

• Few people said that he should stop misleading people with his vague comments

Merger of Union Bill

• Merger of the railway and general budget was considered to be historic as it removes the plan and non-plan expenditure.

• Few cited concern over this, since they believe that Indian Railway might not receive its importance in the general budget

• Mr. Subramanian’s silence on demonetization during the discussion of the economic survey was taken negatively by the people.

Income Tax/Digital Economy/Infrastructure

• Negative sentiment was due to:

– lack of focus on direct job creations,

– corporate taxation,

– no tax benefit under 80C,

– upper IT slab contributing to 15%

• The volume of conversation around ‘service tax’ before budget announcement was 45% for the expected hike from 15% to 18% due to demonetization, however, post budget 2017 it reduced as there was no changes in the existing service tax.

© 2017 Blueocean Market Intelligence 7

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