The pilot cities for award-winning invoices have already issued 1.85 billion yuan. Three types of violations will be targeted for investigation.

According to the State Administration of Taxation, since the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration of Taxation launched a six-month pilot project of prize-winning invoices in 50 cities this year, as of March 12, the prize-winning invoice pilot cities have distributed a total of 18.5 billion yuan in prizes, attracting a total of 230 million participants. During the promotion of the prize-winning invoice activities, the relevant departments found that some consumers and merchants, in order to increase their chances of winning, violated the rules by engaging in behaviors such as cancelling invoices with red stamps after the draw, repeatedly invalidating invoices, etc. This disrupts the fair participation order and harms the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Officials from the Taxation Administration and Technology Development Department explained that so-called "red-cancelling invoices" refer to actions that invalidate the original invoice due to factors such as sales returns, errors in invoicing, cessation of taxable services, sales discounts, etc. In the absence of valid reasons, invoices cannot be arbitrarily invalidated or cancelled with red stamps. According to relevant laws and regulations, during the implementation of the prize-winning invoice activities, the relevant departments will focus on monitoring and investigating three types of violations: fraudulent issuance of invoices, unreasonable splitting or merging of invoices, and unauthorized red-cancelling of invoices.