In Pakistan, the National Prize Bond Scheme was started in 1960 to borrow money from people and reward them with cash prizes based on raffles. This system helps the Pakistani government to borrow billions of rupees from the public, but investors do not gain much in return. Let’s find out more.
What is an Award Bonus?
It is a type of lottery bonus. The National Savings Pakistan offers them. It is a kind of bearer investment that does not generate profits or premiums. You can get these bonuses in different denominations.
Denominations
In Pakistan, you can find them in many denominations ranging from 100 to 40,000. For more information, you can refer to a list of reward bonuses.
The reward bonus program
Drawings are held every 15 days, usually the first business day of the month. Apart from this, each lucky denomination draw is organized on a quarterly basis.
Claim the prize
If you want to claim the prize money, you must fill in the form and send it with your current CNIC, the original prize voucher signed by you and the photocopy of the prize voucher signed by you.
The top prize
The highest prize money is Rs 80,000,000 over the Rs 40,000 Premium Prize Bonus. The second largest prize money is Rs 75,000,000, which is offered against a regular Rs 40,000 bonus. And these giveaways are organized quarterly.
Who can buy these bonds?
Whether you live inside or outside Pakistan, you can buy these bonds at any registered dealer or scheduled bank.
Online shopping
You cannot buy these bonds online. You can buy them at a local bank, state bank offices, or national savings.
Guess papers
Although there are many guesswork articles online, they are of no use. There is no formula for knowing which bonus will be the winner. It all depends on your luck, since the system is based on lotteries.
Period of validity
Once you have purchased a voucher, it will remain valid as long as the scheme is valid. In other words, there is no age limit or expiration date on these bonds.
Claim the prize
Once the draw is completed, you have a period of 6 years to claim your prize.
Tax on the amount earned
For non-taxpayers, the tax rate is 25% of the winning amount, and for taxpayers, the proportion is 15%.
Points of sale
You can visit the offices of State Bank, National Savings, or a local bank to buy reward bonds in Pakistan.
Refund or exchange
You cannot make use of any refund or exchange policy once you have purchased the vouchers. Once you lose your ties, you will have to suffer the loss. Since these are bearer bonds, the prize money will be awarded to whoever has the bond. Therefore, you may want to keep your ties in a safe place.
So this was a short introduction to the bonds offered by the Pakistani government. If you have purchased these bonuses, you can refer to a list of prize bonuses to find out if you have won any prize money.