Half of this amount was spent on advertising the goods and services tax (GST) Bachat Utsav, a nationwide campaign launched as a “savings festival” to create awareness about the reforms to rationalise GST rate slabs. This emerged from responses to a Right to Information (RTI) query seen by Business Standard, besides the information being presented in the Rajya Sabha.

 It spent 2.6 per cent of its total advertisement expenditure on the 10 schemes which were advertised largely through the print media.  

 Out of the 10 tracked schemes, eight received advertisement allocations, while two got none at all.

 The GST Bachat Utsav emerged as the single largest recipient of these allocations. Between September 2025 and December 2025, the government allocated ₹27.1 crore to the campaign. It is a 100-day nationwide outreach campaign which highlights consumer savings from GST 2.0.

 The PM Internship Scheme recorded the second-highest spend at ₹12.6 crore from October 2024 to March 2026, followed by the PM Vishwakarma Scheme, which received ₹7.4 crore between September 2023 and March, 2026.

Across all 10 schemes from FY24 to FY26, print media captured 58.8 per cent of the total ad spending, followed by electronic media at 19.5 per cent, digital media at 14.6 per cent, and outdoor media at 7.2 per cent.

 Paritosh Joshi, who runs Provocateur Advisory, an independent media and communications consultancy, said that the decline in net GST revenue carries political undertones for the government. During the festival season, consumer spending typically rises, and the government’s move to cut taxes was positioned as a measure to show that it was doing something tangible for the people. To maximise visibility, the GST Bachat Utsav campaign appears to have received higher allocations, he said.

 “However, the push was not limited to the government alone. Merchants also ran their own campaigns and promotions to attract consumers, meaning the publicity drive was a combined effort rather than solely a government initiative,” he added.