The State Goods and Services Tax (GST) Department will launch the Lucky Bill App scheme on Tuesday as part of stepped-up efforts to check tax evasion.
In a bid to make the scheme attractive, the government is offering prizes to the public who upload GST invoices after making their purchases. The scheme is designed to encourage consumers to demand bills on making purchases and force traders to issue accurate bills. The government calculates that this, in turn, will lead to a marked increase in tax revenues.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will launch the Lucky Bill App in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, department officials said.
Prizes worth ₹5 crore are offered annually under this scheme. Bills uploaded via the app stand to win prizes through daily, weekly, and monthly draws in addition to a bumper prize of ₹25 lakh. Prizes for the daily draws consist of a Kudumbashree gift packet worth ₹1,000 each for 25 winners and a Vanasree gift packet worth ₹1,000 each for 25 winners.
The weekly prize consists of a three-day/two-night free stay offered by the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation for 25 winners. The monthly draw carries a first prize of ₹10 lakh and second prize of ₹2 lakh each for five persons.
The Lucky Bill App scheme was announced in the 2022-23 State Budget by Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal as a method to ensure that traders abided by the tax laws. An amount of ₹5 crore was allocated for the scheme. The app could be downloaded from Google Play Store or keralataxes.gov.in.
The Lucky Bill App scheme is part of the government's strategies to step up tax revenues. Mr. Balagopal had stated that Kerala was likely to be deprived of ₹23,000 crore this fiscal alone due to the cut in fiscal deficit grant and discontinuation of the GST compensation.
On the other hand, Kerala had registered a 29% growth in GST revenues in July this year (₹2,161 crore) compared to July 2021 (₹1,675 crore), according to data released by the Centre.
