The government’s taxpayer incentive scheme has witnessed a dramatic increase in public participation, with 357,149 transaction bills submitted through the prize portal in its second bimonthly round.
According to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), only 7,077 bills were registered during the first round, which covered the first 15 days of Fiscal Year (FY) 2026/27. The sharp increase in the second round indicates growing awareness and participation in the government’s initiative to encourage consumers to demand official bills.
Participation through QR-based digital transactions also increased significantly, rising from 25.6 million to 32 million transactions during the same period.
From the latest pool of entries, the government selected 17 winners, with each receiving a prize of Rs 133,334 before tax. After the applicable tax deduction, each winner will receive Rs 100,000. In addition, one participant won the Rs 1 million bumper prize, which is subject to a 25 percent tax deduction.
The IRD has said the growing number of participants demonstrates the increasing effectiveness of the incentive-based approach to improving tax compliance. By encouraging consumers to request official bills and linking transactions with rewards, the government hopes to bring more economic activities into the formal system while discouraging tax evasion.
The sharp rise from just over 7,000 submitted bills in the first round to more than 357,000 in the second also suggests that public awareness of the taxpayer reward programme is rapidly expanding.
