Govt earns 270cr from Onam bumper sales

Thiruvananthapuram: A Thiruvananthapuram native auto driver has won the first prize of the state government’s Onam bumper lottery that has the highest prize money of Rs 25 crore.
Sreevaraham native Anoop picked up his prize-winning lottery ticket with the number TJ 750605 from a lottery agency in the city, The prize winner will get Rs 15.75 crore after deducting the taxes applicable on the prize money.
Finance minister K N Balagopal chose the bumper prize winner through a draw, held at Gorky Bhavan here. The second prize was won by a ticket that was sold in Kottayam. The second prize winner will get Rs 5 crore, while the third prize will be Rs 1 crore each for 10 winners. As many as 90 winners will get Rs 1 lakh each as fourth prize. The government is disbursing Rs 126 crore as prize money for the Onam bumper lottery ticket this year.
As many as 66.5 lakh Onam bumper tickets were sold in the state till Saturday evening. Last year, the state had sold Rs 54 lakh lotteries under the same category which was then priced at Rs 300 per ticket. Though only 65 lakh lottery tickets were printed this year initially, additional tickets had to be printed since the demand was high. Also, the ticket price was hiked to Rs 500 this year.
As much as Rs 270 crore has been earned by the government till now this year through the Onam bumper sales. The government’s revenue excludes the prize money, 28% GST and other expenses, including printing and distribution. Last year, the government had earned Rs 124.5 crore from Onam bumper lottery sales.
Though there was a concern initially among the agents initially that the demand would be less owing to higher price the concerns turned out to be baseless later. Along with the draw of the Onam bumper, the finance minister also launched the sale of the Pooja bumper lottery of the state government by handing over the first lottery ticket to transport minister Antony Raju.