Your GST Bill Can Help You Win Rs. 1 Crore!
The "Mera Bill Mera Adhikar" scheme in India promotes consumer awareness and engagement by rewarding them for requesting and uploading GST invoices.
Whenever we buy something or eat at a restaurant, we take the bill which gives details of the things purchased or services taken and the tax charged. Earlier there was VAT for things that we bought, for example TV, mobile, clothes, food etc and Service Tax for services used like hotel bills etc. Later for more transparency and to stop tax evasion, the government in 2016 merged both into Goods and Service Tax (GST). Now on bills we have Central government GST and State government GST. GST requires every transaction to be recorded and reported on the GST portal. Also the government has always been stressing and asking customers to take a proper bill which mentions the GST number, details of the goods or services, description, quantity, price, tax rate, tax amount, etc.In some restaurants and shops also, you would have seen the notice that if you don’t get a proper bill, the order is free. Now the government of India has come up with a new scheme called Mera Bill Mera Adhikar which means My Bill My Right. It was launched on 1st September 2023. It is a campaign to create awareness among the consumers about their right to demand a GST invoice from the sellers. By asking for a GST invoice, the consumers can ensure that they are paying the correct amount of tax and that they are not being cheated by the sellers. They can also verify the authenticity of the invoice by scanning the QR code or checking the e-way bill number on it. Under the Mera Bill Mera Adhikar, the government has launched a web portal and mobile app for uploading of B2C i.e. Business to Consumer invoices. Through the Mera Bill Mera Adhikar scheme, people will get a chance to win cash prizes by uploading GST bills. The government will give a cash reward from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 crore. A corpus of ?30 crore has been made available under this initiative on an annual basis. Every month, there will be 10 awards of ?10 lakh each and 800 awards of ?10,000 each. Every quarter (3 months), there will be two bumper awards worth ?1 crore each. That will be eight such awards of ?1 crore in a year. These will be given to the winners through a draw of lots.
The scheme was implemented as a pilot project from 1st September 2023 to the following states and UTs viz. Gujarat, Assam, Puducherry, Haryana, Daman & Diu, & Nagar Haveli. This Pilot Scheme will run for a period of 12 months and will be expanded gradually across the country. All residents of India will be eligible to participate in this Scheme irrespective of their State/UT. However, currently all bills issued in the above mentioned states and UTs will be eligible to participate in this scheme. Maximum 25 invoices can be uploaded by an individual on App/web portal in a month to be considered for lucky draw.
The process to upload such invoices is very simple.
- Create an account on the portal by using your mobile number
- Start uploading invoices through the upload invoice button at the bottom left. Minimum bill Rs 200
- After uploading the PDF of the invoice, verify invoice details in the next section
- Submit the invoice.
After submission, an Acknowledgement Reference Number (ARN) will be generated which will be used for the draw of prizes. Isn’t this amazing? What do you think about this scheme? Let us know in the comments below.
