Citizen group proposes QR-based bill verification system to curb GST evasion in restaurant sector

A citizens' rights organisation has submitted a representation to Union Finance Minister proposing a nationwide QR-code-based bill verification mechanism aimed at curbing large-scale GST evasion in the restaurant and food retail sector. In its representation dated May 9, the citizen-led initiative proposed the 'Bharat Bill Reward' (BBR) system, which seeks to incentivise customers to verify invoices through a government-linked QR scan application. The organisation claimed that GST evasion in the restaurant and food services sector could be running into thousands of crores annually and cited recent Income Tax Department surveys and GST raids as evidence of widespread suppression of turnover. ''The core innovation of the BBR system is its simplicity: every invoice carries a mandatory GSTN-generated QR code, and every customer verifies their invoice by scanning this QR code through the BBR App in a single second,'' the representation stated. According to the proposal, every invoice generated by restaurants would contain a government-authenticated QR code linked to GSTN servers. Customers scanning the code through the mobile app would become eligible for daily lucky draw rewards. The representation argued that the proposed system would address four major forms of alleged tax evasion in the sector: non-billing of transactions, deletion of bills from POS systems, splitting turnover across multiple GST registrations, and maintenance of parallel billing software. ''Enforcement is reactive, not preventive. Raids and surveys can identify evasion after it has occurred over years, but cannot prevent each individual transaction from being deleted or unrecorded,'' it said. The organisation also claimed that India's restaurant and food services sector has an annual turnover of about Rs 5.69 lakh crore and alleged that ''projected total industry-wide evasion since FY 2019-20 is estimated at Rs 70,000 crore''. Under the proposal, all verified invoice scans would automatically enter customers into a daily lottery system, with prizes funded through a small cess on GST collections from restaurants. The representation cited examples from countries including Taiwan, Brazil, Portugal and China, where invoice-verification or lottery-linked billing systems were implemented to improve tax compliance. The group urged the Finance Ministry and GST authorities to examine the proposal as a technology-driven, citizen-powered mechanism to strengthen GST compliance and transparency in the food services sector.

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