Crypto tax impact? Indians’ interest in cryptocurrency is declining since Budget 2022, Google data suggests

The announcement of flat 30% tax on income from cryptocurrencies and other virtual digital assets in Union Budget 2022 seems to have negatively affected Indian retail investors’ interest in crypto, last 90 days’ search data from Google Trends suggests.

Searches for the term “Cryptocurrency” were at all time high in the past 90 days on February 1, the Budget Day, with reading of 100. Since then, the readings have been in the range of 17-9 on most of the days.

Google data suggest that most of the searches on cryptocurrencies in the last 90 days originated from Sikkim, followed by Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Daman and Diu and Nagaland, Haryana, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Punjab, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.

The reading for the search term “crypto” was also highest on the Budget day at 100. It has been in the range of 36-13 since then, with most of the searches from Chandigarh, followed by Daman and Diu, Goa, Haryana, Sikkim, Delhi, Tripura, Maharashtra, Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir. Top related queries around crypto included “30 tax on crypto”, “tds on crypto” “Russia crypto news”.

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As per Google trends, a higher value means a higher proportion of all queries, not a higher absolute query count. Also, readings/numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time.

“A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means that there was not enough data for this term,” Google says.

With the help of Google Trends, one can compare search volume of specific terms in a fixed time frame. While the total number of searches on cryptocurrency may not have decreased, data from Google clearly suggests that the popularity of cryptocurrency may be decreasing since the introduction of crypto tax.

The 30% crypto tax rule became effective since the commencement of new Financial Year on 1st April 2022. The Government has also proposed to impose 1% TDS on every crypto transfers from July 1, 2022.