Paying by QR code at a hotel or restaurant in Punjab may soon come with a chance at a prize. The provincial tax body, the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), plans a draw-style reward scheme for QR payers, and it is also threatening hotels and restaurants that turn QR payments away.
PRA Chairman Moazzam Iqbal Sipra led the meeting where this was settled. A PRA spokesperson told it the goal is to get customers off cash, which he said makes sales easier to trace and builds trust in the tax system. The authority has published no prize list, draw date or launch date yet.
The same meeting also dealt with customers who get stuck. Staff were told to take complaints about digital payments first, and the PRA will build a complaint-monitoring system for QR users so problems are fixed fast. A public awareness campaign aimed at the hotel and restaurant trade is planned too.
Behind the reward sits a tougher enforcement push. Hotels and restaurants across the province were instructed last week to install E-IMS, the PRA’s electronic invoice monitoring system. Registration of new businesses and E-IMS installation will now be speeded up across 14 designated sectors, officers carry installation targets, and enforcement teams are to be set up. Shops that hand out bogus receipts or doctor their records are warned of tough penalties.
For a diner the practical change is small for now: nothing has to be done until the rules are published, but a shop that turns down a QR code is now a shop the PRA says it will pursue. Shops also have Raast QR fees that the government says it will keep subsidising, which removes one reason to refuse.
Revenue is the context: the PRA took in Rs. 114.76 billion across July and August 2026, up 31.6% on Rs. 87.18 billion a year before. The authority’s target for 2026-27 is Rs. 1,209 billion.
The prizes need published rules before diners can enter, and the PRA has yet to release them.
This story is based on a press release.
