Shoppers in Taiwan may no longer need to collect paper receipts by the end of this year. The Ministry of Finance said Saturday that it planned to launch an 'e-receipt' program as early as December, with expected savings of NT$7.4 billion (US$2.36 billion) over the next four years. After the system is introduced, information about payments using integrated circuit chip devices -- such as transportation smart cards -- will be automatically transmitted to the Financial Data Center under the Ministry of Finance, a local newspaper cited Deputy Finance Minister Tseng Ming-chung as saying. 'People will no longer need to collect paper receipts, and every two months a government system will help customers check for winning numbers in the receipt lottery, ' Tseng said, adding that the government will notify winners via text message or e-mail. The receipt lottery is aimed at stemming tax evasion by firms or stores by encouraging consumers to obtain receipts for every purchase from businesses with monthly turnovers of NT$200,000 and above. According to the ministry, about 11.5 billion paper receipts are printed every year. Tseng said that the ministry is planning a one-year trial run from December, and that a proposal for the project has been submitted to the Executive Yuan for approval. Over the past five years nearly 27,000 companies have used 'e-invoices' for business-to-business transactions, saving handling costs of NT$2.8 billion, according to the Council for Economic Planning and Development. For the first time since the receipt lottery began in 1951, the ministry held a direct public presentation of the drawing in Taipei on Saturday. Finance Minister Lee Sush-der said earlier this year that the government hopes e-receipts will solve any inconvenience for the public in collecting receipts and checking the numbers for lottery prizes. The receipt lottery system is managed by the ministry and cash prizes are offered on the 25th of every odd-numbered month. Each draw includes eight numbers, with a grand prize of NT$2 million and the lowest prize of NT$200 awarded to those holding receipts that contain the final three winning numbers. The ministry said that it issued NT$4.66 billion in cash prizes for the receipt lottery in 2009. The budget for this year is expected to be NT$4.8 billion. About NT$200 million in prizes went unclaimed over the past two years, according to the ministry. 