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Published 19:58 IST, November 26th 2019

Finance Ministry to introduce a lottery scheme to encourage customers to pay GST

The lottery scheme plan is to hold daily and monthly lotteries for customers who take a copy of the bill after paying GST for business to consumer transactions.

Reported by: Ananya Varma
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The Ministry of Finance is planning on taking an innovative approach in order to encourage customers to pay the GST. For this, the Finance Ministry has come up with a lottery scheme to lure customers to pay Goods and Services Tax (GST). "This will be a step to improve compliance and check on tax leakage," a senior Finance Ministry official told ANI. 

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How does the lottery scheme work? 

The lottery scheme plan will hold daily and monthly lotteries for customers. The customers have to take a copy of the bill after paying GST for business to consumer transactions, which would then have to be uploaded on a dedicated portal or app that will be designed specifically for this scheme. "The app of the portal will auto-capture phone number, bill number and GST number of the trader through which names of winners will be selected," said an official. Monthly rewards through these lotteries will be 'high' enough to lure customers towards paying GST. 

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A play on the VAT scheme by Delhi government

The GST scheme introduced by the Finance Ministry is on similar lines with the one introduced by the Delhi government to reward customers for paying Value Added Tax. Delhi Government in 2015 had introduced 'Bill Banao, Inaam Pao' scheme in the VAT regime. As per the scheme, a customer was eligible for a prize of five times the taxable value subject to a cap of Rs 50,000, if he made a purchase from a registered dealer. The minimum taxable value of goods was Rs 100 and included eateries.

"The GST scheme would help kill two birds with one stone. Once the lottery scheme system is introduced, it will also help to keep a check on the traders who are collecting GST from people but not depositing the same with the government. Once we make system traders forging entries will fear being caught," said another official from the ministry. A minimum threshold for bills is yet to be decided in the lottery scheme. The prize for the lottery would come from the consumer welfare fund said the ministry. 

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(With ANI inputs)

19:33 IST, November 26th 2019