The Rs 30 Crore Onam Bumper Winner Actually Gets Rs 15.46 Crore

Kerala’s Thiruvonam Bumper BR-111 draw on September 26 handed ticket TL 360615 a first prize of Rs 30 crore, the highest first prize in the state lottery’s history, but the winner won’t see anything close to that number. After the selling agent’s commission and the tax withheld at source, the actual amount reaching the winner’s account works out to roughly Rs 15.46 crore, just over half the printed prize.

The Draw

The draw was held at Gorky Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram. Tickets were priced at Rs 500 each, with 90 lakh printed and 89.85 lakh actually sold, which puts the odds of holding the single first-prize ticket at roughly 1 in 90 lakh. Winners have 30 days to claim their prize, and first and second prize winners specifically have to surrender the physical ticket in person or by insured registered post to the Director of State Lotteries.

The Full Prize List

Prize	Amount	Winners
First	Rs 30 crore	1
Second	Rs 1 crore	20
Third	Rs 25 lakh	20
Fourth	Rs 5 lakh	10
Fifth	Rs 2 lakh	10

How Rs 30 Crore Becomes Rs 15.46 Crore

Two separate deductions apply before the winner sees any money, and both happen before the ticket is even paid out. The selling agent’s 10 percent commission comes off the printed Rs 30 crore first, leaving Rs 27 crore as the amount actually taxed. Lottery winnings are taxed under Section 115BB at a flat 30 percent, with no deductions or slab benefits, plus a surcharge that applies once winnings cross Rs 50 lakh. At the payout stage, that surcharge is withheld at the older 37 percent rate that applied to income above Rs 5 crore, plus a 4 percent cess on the combined tax and surcharge.

Step	Amount
Printed first prize	Rs 30,00,00,000
Agent commission (10%)	– Rs 3,00,00,000
Taxable amount	Rs 27,00,00,000
Tax, surcharge and cess withheld	– Rs 11,54,08,800
Amount paid to winner	Rs 15,45,91,200

The Surcharge Quirk Most Winners Don’t Know About

Since the 2023-24 tax year, the new tax regime caps the maximum surcharge on total income above Rs 2 crore at 25 percent, not 37 percent, for most income types. What gets withheld at the counter still uses the older, higher 37 percent figure, because that’s the standing withholding rate regardless of which regime a winner will eventually file under. That gap between what’s withheld and what the law actually caps the final bill at is exactly why the department hands over a TDS certificate with the payout: a chartered accountant uses it to claim back the difference when filing that year’s return, rather than treating the counter amount as final. For a prize this size, that difference is real money, not a rounding error.

How the Prize Has Grown

The Rs 30 crore figure isn’t just this year’s number, it’s a record for the Onam Bumper specifically. The first prize stood at Rs 12 crore before being raised to Rs 25 crore in July 2022, and has now been raised again to Rs 30 crore for 2026, the largest first prize the Kerala state lottery has ever offered.

IndiaRealTime has covered the tax side of Indian lotteries before with a look at why Kerala lottery winners take home far less than the headline prize, and with how Nagaland’s Lottery Sambad draws are actually run. For winners weighing what to do with a sudden windfall, IndiaRealTime’s fixed deposit rate tracker and mutual funds section are reasonable starting points before making any large, irreversible decision with the money.

FAQs

What was the winning number for Onam Bumper 2026?
TL 360615 won the Rs 30 crore first prize in the Thiruvonam Bumper BR-111 draw on September 26, 2026.

How much does the first prize winner actually receive?
Roughly Rs 15.46 crore, after a 10 percent agent commission and tax, surcharge and cess withheld on the remaining amount.

Why is Rs 30 crore a record?
It’s the highest first prize ever offered by the Kerala state lottery, up from Rs 25 crore in 2022 and Rs 12 crore before that.

What were the odds of winning the first prize?
About 1 in 90 lakh, based on 89.85 lakh tickets sold against a single first-prize ticket.

Can the winner get back any of the withheld tax?
Potentially, yes. The 37 percent surcharge withheld at payout is higher than the 25 percent cap under the new tax regime, so the difference can be claimed back using the TDS certificate when filing that year’s return.

Sources

• Onmanorama: Thiruvonam Bumper BR-111 lottery results, first prize list, winners
• Deccan Chronicle: Kerala hikes Onam Bumper lottery first prize to Rs 30 crore, highest in India
• Haila Kochi: How much does an Onam Bumper winner actually take home
• TaxGuru: Taxation on lottery winnings and prize money, what you actually take home

Updated September 26, 2026.