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Monthly GST filing will not be necessary after e-invoice system is in place: Finance secretary

Monthly GST filing will not be necessary after e-invoice system is in place: Finance secretary

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In a major relief to businesses, the government plans to do away with monthly filing of Goods and Services Tax (GST) returns after the electronic invoice (e-invoice) is fully operationalised, which will not only reduce compliance burden but also check tax evasion, finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.

“GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B will ultimately be phased out, once we fully operationalise the electronic invoice (e-invoice),” he said. In the normal course, the two GST returns (GSTRs) means 24 returns filed by GST registered entities every month. The GSTR-1 is a return indicating sales or outward supplies made during the month and the GSTR-3B is the summary return indicating supplies made, input tax credit availed and tax payment made for the month.

E-invoicing is already under implementation in phases. It will be mandatory for all from the next financial year as part of the government’s ongoing efforts towards ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and ‘Honouring the Honest’. Once put into operation, both e-way bill system and filing of certain GST returns (GSTR) would be eventually be withdrawn, said Pandey, who is also the revenue secretary.

The government has already announced a roadmap to implement e-invoices. Currently e-invoicing is mandatory for companies with turnover of Rs500 crore or more. From January 1, 2021 it will be compulsory for companies having turnover of over Rs100 crore, and from April 1, 2020 it will be mandatory for all.

“Actually our objective is, once you have an electronic invoice it should ultimately do away with your e-way bills, and also eventually do away with GST returns because from the e-invoice itself your returns can be generated. Then, at the end of the month the taxpayer has to simply validate his return and make the payment of taxes,” the finance secretary said.

The government on October 1 introduced the e-invoicing system for businesses with an annual turnover of over Rs500 crore, which replaces the physical invoice and allows buyers and sellers to have real time information of the invoices. Eventually, e-invoice will auto-populate GST returns and businesses will not be required to generate e-way bills.

To be sure, the introduction of e-invoicing system was initially scheduled from April 1, 2020, but it was postponed to October 1 because of the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

The finance secretary said “The e-invoice system will lead to a massive reduction in compliance and at the same time it will be good for industry, good for the taxpayers and very difficult for the fraudsters.”

The government, which has launched a major drive against GST frauds, believes that e-invoicing system will instantly eliminate fake invoices, currently rampant to fraudulently claim input tax credit (ITC).

“Rationalisation in the number of returns would really aid businesses by reducing the compliance burdens, which have significantly increased in the GST regime, especially for the service sector. Any method of auto-population of data in the monthly returns, with a facility for businesses to amend the data, would also go a long way in improving the ease of doing business,” MS Mani, partner at consulting firm, said.

Chartered accountant, Sunil Kumar said, “E-invoicing system auto-populates e-invoice data submitted by taxpayer over Invoice Registration Portal to GSTN [GST Network] portal which eventually helps in auto generation of GST returns.”

“Entry of invoices and access to the invoices data on real time basis, will leave less scope for invoice manipulation, thereby reducing the instances of fake invoice and tax invasion. E-invoicing system invites strong IT infrastructure,” he added.

According to experts, this reform will lead to massive reduction in compliance burden as a company having business operations in 25 states have to file both GSTR-1 and GSTR-2B separately in 25 jurisdictions, every month. “If an entity operates in 25 states, it has to file 50 returns per month, hence 600 monthly returns in a year,” Mani said. This is in addition to the two annual returns – GSTR-9 and 9C to be filed for each registration, he added.

Source: Hindustan-Times.

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GST e-invoicing mandatory from January 1, 2021, if turnover exceeds Rs 100 cr

GST e-invoicing mandatory from January 1, 2021, if turnover exceeds Rs 100 cr

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The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Tuesday notified that GST e-invoicing will be mandatory for any firm whose turnover exceeds Rs 100 crore from January 1, 2021. The limit set earlier was a turnover of Rs 500 crore.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-rule (4) of rule 48 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, the Government, on the recommendations of the Council, hereby makes the following further amendments in the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), No. 13/2020 – Central Tax, dated the 21st March, 2020, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i) vide number G.S.R. 196(E), dated 21st March, 2020, namely:-

In the said notification, in the first paragraph, with effect from the 1st day of January, 2021, for the words ‘five hundred crore rupees’, the words ‘one hundred crore rupees’ shall be substituted,” said the notification.

The changes will bring a large number of medium enterprises under the ambit of e-invoicing. It is expected that it will be made available to all taxpayers for B2B transactions from 1st April 2021.

“Inclusion of dealers with turnover between INR 100-500 Cr, within the E-invoicing gamut, is another step towards formalisation of the economy. There could be some initial hiccups in implementation, albeit, in the long run the same is likely to result in more transparency, better tax administration and automation of tax compliance and filings,” said Harpreet Singh, Partner, Indírect taxes, KPMG India.

The electronic invoicing system for business to business transactions was implemented on a mandatory basis for companies with turnover above Rs 500 crore from October 1.

Source: Economic-Times.

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E-invoice
GST e-invoice system: 495 lakh e-invoices generated on NIC portal

GST e-invoice system: 495 lakh e-invoices generated on NIC portal

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Ministry of Electronics & IT has said that over 495 lakh GST e-invoices were generated on the NIC portal by 27,400 tax payers within the first month of introduction.

“Path breaking e-invoice initiative which completed one month on the 31st October, is poised to revolutionize the way businesses interact with each other. According to NIC, within the first month of introduction itself, more than 495 Lakh e-invoices were generated on the NIC portal by 27,400 tax payers. The e-invoice system, the game changer in the GST system, was launched on 1st October, 2020 for the businesses with aggregate turnover of more than Rs. 500 Crores in the financial year,” an official release said.

It will be yet another milestone in India’s journey in enhancing ease of doing business. The data captured by the Invoice Registration Portal will flow seamlessly to GSTR1 return of the tax payer in GST Common Portal (gst.gov.in), thus reducing the compliance burden, the release said.

Starting with 8.4 Lakh e-invoices on 1st October, 2020, the usage has gradually picked up and 31st October, 2020 saw generation of as many as 35 lakh e-invoices in a single day. This coupled with generation of 641 Lakh e-way bills during the month of October, 2020, (by far the highest in a month during two and half years of journey of e-way bill system), establishes the robustness of the system. As per the feedback received from the tax payers, the response of the system is good and generation of IRNs is hassle-free. Proactive communication by NIC Help desk with tax payers has helped them in finetuning their systems to reduce the errors.

Currently, there are three modes of generations of IRN in NIC system. First is the direct API interface of ERP system of tax payer with NIC system. Second is the API interface of ERP system of the tax payer through GSP with NIC system. Third is using the offline tool for bulk uploading of invoices and generating IRNs. Around 15% of the tax payers are using the offline tool for the IRN generations and 85% are integrating through API.

The Government is planning to reduce the aggregate turnover cut off to Rs 100 Crores for generation of IRN by the tax payers in coming days. NIC has already enabled the API and offline tool based trial sites for these tax payers and geared up with the required infrastructure to handle the generation of e-invoices from these tax payers.

Keeping requirements of small tax payers in view, who need to prepare 5-10 B2B invoices in a day, NIC is also developing an offline Excel based IRN preparation and IRN printing tool which will allow them to enter the invoice details, prepare the file to upload on NIC IRN portal, download the IRN with QR code and print the e-invoice with QR code.

Presently, the generation of IRN using API interface is allowed for businesses with aggregate turnover more than Rs 500 crores, GSPs and shortlisted ERPs. Now, direct access will be extended to the tax payers using E-way Bill API interface. Generally, the big businesses will enable their suppliers and clients to use their ERP/SAP systems for generation of invoices. Therefore, it has been decided to facilitate them to enable their suppliers and clients to use their integration channels.

Source: Zee-News

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E-invoice
GST e-invoicing for all B2B transactions from April 1, 2021: Finance Secretary

GST e-invoicing for all B2B transactions from April 1, 2021: Finance Secretary

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The government will roll out the electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) system for all business-to-business (B2B) transactions under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime from April 1 next year that will replace physical invoices, finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.

The government introduced the e-invoicing system on October 1, 2020 for businesses with an annual turnover over Rs 500 crore. “By January 1, 2021, it will be available to taxpayers with an annual turnover over Rs 100 crore,” he said.

“It is a great step forward as e-invoicing has many advantages both for the business and the tax administration. Buyers and sellers will be able to have realtime information of the invoices. It replaces the physical invoice and will soon replace the existing e-way bill system and taxpayers will not have to generate separate e-way bills,” he said.

Pandey said the e-invoicing system may eventually dispense with the present system of filing GST returns for smaller businesses and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) because e-invoice will pre-populate returns for such businesses and they will be required to simply pay the taxes.

“The returns will be automatically generated for all supplies for which e-invoices have been issued,” he said after reviewing the progress of the e-invoicing system that was introduced on October 1 for businesses with an annual turnover of over Rs 500 crore. The meeting was attended by senior officials from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and the GST Network (GSTN).

After review of the progress in the last seven days, Pandey said the implementation of e-invoicing is getting progressively robust. “This is the beginning of a new chapter of the ease of doing business and paying taxes in India. From the first to the seventh day Invoice Reference Number (IRN) generation has grown by 163% and have touched the count of 13.69 lakh IRNs on the seventh day, i.e., on October 7,” he said.

“As e-invoicing is an exceedingly progressive system, we expect that it will also have other major advantages of improving the payment cycle for the industry and give boost to invoice based lending to MSMEs,” he said.
India has been able to build and develop this massive e-invoice system in GST in just seven to eight months, he said. According to a note prepared by GSTN, between October 1 and October 7 more than 69.5 lakh IRNs were generated by over 71 thousand users.

“On the very first day of e-invoicing system, more than 8.40 lakh IRNs were generated by 8,453 users while on October 7 about 13.69 lakh IRNs were generated by 14,100 users, it said.

To be sure, the introduction of e-invoicing system was initially scheduled from April 1, 2020, but it was postponed to October 1 because of the suddent outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. In order to make the system gradually adjust to the e- invoicing system, it was prescribed that the taxpayers having aggregate turnover of Rs. 500 crore and above only would be required to issue e-invoice from October 1.

Source: Hindustan-Times.

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E-invoice
GST: CBIC notifies Schema for E-Invoice, SEZ units are excluded from E-Invoicing

GST: CBIC notifies Schema for E-Invoice, SEZ units are excluded from E-Invoicing

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The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs ( CBIC ) on Thursday notified the Schema for E-Invoice for implementing e-invoicing, a form of electronically-authenticated invoices, from October 1 only for businesses with a turnover of Rs 500 crore or more under GST.

The Government empowered under Rule 48(4) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, on the recommendations of the Council, amended the Notification No.13/2020-Central Tax, dated the 21st March, 2020, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), vide number G.S.R. 196(E), dated the 21st March, 2020.

In the said notification, in the first paragraph, before the words “those referred to in sub-rules”, the words “a Special Economic Zone unit and” shall be inserted.

Further, for the words “one hundred crore rupees”, the words “five hundred crore rupees” shall be substituted.

As per the earlier notification, a certain class of registered persons (insurance company, banking company, financial institution, non-banking financial institution, GTA, passenger transportation service etc.) to be exempted from issuing e-invoices or capturing dynamic QR code. The Notification said that “an invoice issued by a registered person, whose aggregate turnover in a financial year exceeds five hundred crore rupees, other than those referred to in sub-rules (2), (3), (4) and (4A) of rule 54 of said rules, and registered person referred to in section 14 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, to an unregistered person (hereinafter referred to as B2C invoice), shall have Dynamic Quick Response (QR) code: Provided that where such registered person makes a Dynamic Quick Response (QR) code available to the recipient through a digital display, such B2C invoice issued by such registered person containing cross-reference of the payment using a Dynamic Quick Response (QR) code, shall be deemed to be having Quick Response (QR) code.”

Read More:
https://www.taxscan.in/preview/?previews=1gArKZxhrGvwLMSqbvth-I1Hi9SDPtsWS

Source: TaxScan.

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GST e-invoicing for businesses with Rs 500-cr turnover from Oct 1

GST e-invoicing for businesses with Rs 500-cr turnover from Oct 1

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The government will notify a new GST e-invoice scheme under which businesses with turnover of Rs 500 crore and above will generate all invoices on a centralised government portal starting October 1, an official said on Thursday. Earlier, the turnover threshold for businesses was set at Rs 100 crore.

CBIC Principal Commissioner (GST) Yogendra Garg said the existing Goods and Services Tax (GST) return filing system would be improved further by incorporating the features proposed in the new system.

“Yesterday, the GST Implementation Committee has recommended that we will go ahead with October 1 deadline (for e-invoice)… To begin with we will not do it for Rs 100 crore and above, as we had notified. We will soon come out with a notification to make it Rs 500 crore from October 1 and as they stabilise, we will bring a date for Rs 100 crore turnover people,” Garg said at an Assocham event here.

The new turnover threshold would be notified by next week, he added.

The e-invoice was aimed at curbing GST evasion through issue of fake invoices. Besides, it would make the returns filing process simpler for businesses as invoice data would already be captured by a centralised portal.

In November last year, the government had said that from April 1 electronic invoice (e-invoice) would be mandatory for businesses with turnover of Rs 100 crore. Later in March 2020, the GST Council extended the implementation date to October 1.

The Council also exempted insurance, banking, financial instituions, NBFCs and passenger transport service from issuing e-invoice.

It had also decided to introduce the new GST returns filing system in phases between October 2020 and January 2021.

Garg said in the last 3 years of GST, there has not been a single month which saw returns being filed by all the businesses registered under GST.

About 70-80 per cent of GST registered businesses file returns within the due date.

“2019-20 has been a year of consolidation of compliance requirement…. We took a call that instead of introducing the new return system which we had promised, we will carry out improvement in the existing return system and take it closer to what we had promised in the new return system to make the certainty of credit,” he said.

Garg said the GST administration is working on a proposal to make a system available to businesses about how much input tax credit (ITC) is available with a taxpayer.

“The endeavour is to make life simpler for taxpayer. The vision for 4th year of GST is compliance burden gets reduced and e-invoice would help in this,” he said.

With regard to GST audits, Garg said central tax officers have been training state officers on the audit experience, some of the states had some good strategies which we are working on.

“To the extent possible these arre not going to be physical audits, these are more going to be desk audits,” he added.

Source: Economic-Times.

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New upgraded IT system for GST by July, e-invoicing to be implemented from Oct 1

New upgraded IT system for GST by July, e-invoicing to be implemented from Oct 1

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The GST Council on Saturday demanded Infosys to upgrade the Information Technology (IT) backbone by July 30. In the meantime, the council decided to defer introduction of e-invoicing till September 30.

Non-executive Chairman of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani, who made a presentation before the Council on Saturday has suggested that in order to smoothen the rollout of the new return system, and to ensure a better uptake, the transition may be made in an incremental manner. He suggested that the process may be initiated by addressing the compliance related issues first, so that the problem of tax evasion and gaming of the system due to non-linking of FORM GSTR-1 and FORM GSTR-3B is addressed immediately.

Nilekani informed the Council that to augment the capacity of the IT system to concurrently handle 3 lakh taxpayers from the present level of 1.5 lakh taxpayers, hardware procurement process has been initiated, which is slightly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. He sought time till January 31, 2021 to complete the task. However, the Council decided to cut short the time to July 30, 2020.

To support the timely implementation of various initiatives, the Council gave a go ahead for deployment of additional manpower (60 in number) on T&M (Time and Material) basis and assured that both on procurement of additional hardware and hiring of manpower, expeditious approvals would be given. However, the GST Council insisted on immediate removal of technical glitches in filing returns.

Considering proposed change in the IT system, it has been decided to implement e invoicing system from October 1, while new return will also be introduced from the same date. Earlier, April 1 was the date for these two aspects.

Annual Return

Meanwhile, the Council decided to give relaxation to MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) from furnishing of Reconciliation Statement in FORM GSTR-9C, for the financial year 2018-19, for taxpayers having aggregate turnover below ₹5 crore. Due date for filing the Annual return and the Reconciliation Statement for financial year 2018-19 has been extended to June 30 and late fees not to be levied for delayed filing of the annual return and the Reconciliation Statement for financial year 2017-18 and 2018-19 for taxpayers with aggregate turnover less than ₹2 crore.

MS Mani, Partner at Deloitte India said that the approach of the GST Council to proceed with changes in returns and e-invoicing on an incremental basis would permit businesses to embrace these changes in a calibrated manner. Introduction of multiple changes from April 1, as was proposed earlier , would have put added pressure on businesses, which have been grappling with multiple business and regulatory headwinds. “The concerted efforts to overcome the technology challenges faced by businesses in GST would result in more businesses coming under the ambit of GST,” he said.

Rajat Bose, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co said that deferment of introduction of new return formats and E-invoicing to October 2020 should give enough time to the industry for getting their systems in place.

Interest on delayed payment

Giving relief to businesses, the council decided Interest for delay in payment of GST to be charged on the net cash tax liability with effect from July 1, 2017. For this law will be amended retrospectively.

Parag Mehta, Partner with NA Shah Associates, said substantial litigation was expected due to notices issued by the department to recover interest in case of late filing of GST returns on liability paid by utilising Input Tax Credit. The issue is now settled as GST council has proposed to charge interest only on the net amount i.e cash liability and amend the law retrospectively. “This will almost nullify the recovery notices for interest amounting to ₹49,000 crore,“ he said while adding that it is a valid and required amendment.

Source: The-Hindu-Business-Line

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All you need to know from the 39th GST Council meet

All you need to know from the 39th GST Council meet

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The 39th GST Council took an array of decisions, including an increase in the tax rate on mobile phones and specified parts to 18 percent from 12 per cent. GST on handmade, machine-made matchsticks has been rationalised to 12% while GST on MRO (maintenance repair overhaul) services of aircraft has been slashed to 5% from 18%.

The GST rate on mobile phones was increased from 12% to 18% allowing a full claim of input tax credit; Relief given to domestic service providers of maintenance, repair and operations.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that a better GSTN system should be ensured by Infosys by July 2020.

Here are the major decisions taken

* GST on mobile phones, specified parts increased to 18% from 12%.

*GST on MRO (maintenance repair overhaul) services of aircraft slashed to 5% from 18%

*GST on handmade, machine-made matchsticks rationalised to 12%.

*Delayed GST payment to attract interest on net tax liability from July 1.

Important change on GSTR-1:

The GST Council decided to stagger the GSTR-1 filing for taxpayers with:

*Turnover more than Rs 1.5 cr -to file before 10th of the following month
* Turnover up to Rs 1.5 cr -to file before 13th of the following month
* The GSTR-2A can be generated on 14th of following month
*GSTR-9 and 9C due date pushed to 30th June 2020 for FY 2018-19 from 31 March 2020; Increases the turnover limit from Rs 2 cr to Rs 5 cr for the mandatory annual return filing
*The GST Council defers the proposal on the taxability of economic surplus of brand owners of alcohol for human consumption.

Mr. MS Mani, Partner, reacted to GST Council meet- “ the approach of the GST Council to proceed with changes in returns, e-invoicing etc on an incremental basis would permit businesses to embrace these changes in a calibrated manner. Introduction of multiple changes from 1st April, as was proposed earlier , would have put added pressure on businesses, who have been grappling with multiple business and regulatory headwinds.”

Souce: Economic-Times

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GST portal glitches to dominate agenda of Council meeting on Saturday

GST portal glitches to dominate agenda of Council meeting on Saturday

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Glitches on the goods and services tax (GST) portal will dominate the agenda of the Council meeting on Saturday, even as states will vehemently seek resolution of delayed compensation issue. Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani has been asked to make a presentation before the Council.

“Hassles on the GST portal even 30 months after roll-out is unacceptable and that has been communicated to both GST Network and Infosys,” said a government official.

States are likely to demand that Infosys should have a point of contact in each state to resolve these glitches, the official said.

Meanwhile, the electronic invoice facility is likely to be deferred by three months from April 1 to July owing to lack of readiness of both GSTN and the taxpayers.

Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey took a detailed meeting with Infosys officials on March 7 on the GSTN-related matters, more importantly ahead of the crucial roll-out of new simplified returns from April 1. GSTN’s tech support partner Infosys has been asked to come up with a plan for quick resolution within a fortnight.

System capacity constraints and the inability of GST Network to provide smooth return filing will be taken up at the Council.

With new returns format to be rolled out from April, it was imperative for GSTN and Infosys to work effectively, he added. The department of revenue, in a letter to Infosys on March 5, highlighted that the issues flagged in 2018 were still unresolved and that failures month after month resulted in genuine taxpayers getting frustrated.

“It is requested to go through the pending issues, day-to-day disruptions and the future road map and come up with a plan for quick resolution within 15 days. Infosys has set high international standards and it is expected that the efficiency which your organisation is known for should be visible in GST project also,” the letter said.

It also said even though the GST system has been in operation for the last 30 months, there have been instances of taxpayer complaints on facing issues in filing returns in the last two days of filing of returns.

“It is noticed that MSP (Master Service Provider) Infosys has been repeatedly asked to take timely action and to identify the root cause of issues after each event and taken corrective action. However, problem still persists,” it said.

The ministry said such glitches on the portal led to an unhealthy tax compliance requirement, more so when on account of such disruptions some taxpayers end up becoming liable for payment of late fee, interest.

The ministry is working to shore up GST revenues. In the April-February period this fiscal year, GST collection stood at Rs 11.24 trillion, down from Rs 12.67 trillion in the year-ago period.

No response at peak hours, wrong computation of late fees for annual returns for FY18, and offline tool not available for GSTR9 are among a list of problems flagged in the letter.

Compensation cess issue will be raised by the states, who are likely to ask for full compensation for the fiscal year, irrespective of collections and pitch for extension of compensation period. The Centre, meanwhile, is expected to clearly tell states that they will be compensated only as much as is collected in the cess fund, according to the law.

With only 56 per cent of compensation dues for October and November worth Rs 19.958 crore disbursed last month, states are expected to strongly seek a resolution on the matter.

The Centre is supposed to compensate states on a bi-monthly basis for any losses they incur in the first five years of GST implementation. The loss is estimated if they do not record 14 per cent increase in the subsumed indirect taxes keeping 2014-15 as the base year.

The Centre has released a total of Rs 120,498 crore as GST compensation to the states and Union Territories so far in FY20 out of Rs 87,821 crore collected till February.

Source: Business-Standard.

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E-invoicing Structure, as Envisioned by GSTN

E-invoicing Structure, as Envisioned by GSTN

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e-invoicing Structure

The government has recently released a blueprint for implementing the E-invoicing system all over India, which proposes a working model as well as a standard format for the generation of E-invoices.

We shall look into the fundamentals of E-invoicing, to understand its mechanics in a better way.

The Two Important Components of the E-invoicing Model

The E-invoicing working pattern has been agreed upon globally with some minor variations in the mode of implementation. In India, it comprises of two essential components as given below:

  1. Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) – The invoices, credit notes, and debit notes which are generated by the taxpayers, should be registered on the IRP, which subsequently generates a unique reference number known as the Invoice Reference Number (IRN), a QR code, and a digital signature for these items. In fact, an invoice will be valid for the purpose of Input Tax Credit, refund, etc., only if it is registered on the IRP
  2. A standard format for the E-invoice – This standard pattern comprises of data fields and the necessary specifications. It is highly recommended for the businesses/taxpayers to upgrade their systems so as to follow this E-invoice format which enables seamless interoperability as well as data exchange all through the system.

The E-invoice Standard

The standardized E-invoice format recommended for India has been formulated in accordance with the global practices and the industry requirements for businesses in India. Further, this format has been confirmed after consulting with the respective trade authorities, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), and also as per the opinions from the public.

There are around 120 fields, out of which about 50 are to be uploaded mandatorily on the Invoice Registration Portal for attaining the reference number as well as the digital signature.

Section

 Compulsory Non-compulsory Total Scope
Details of Invoice

11

 7

18

 Recognizing the distinctiveness and nature of invoices like the invoice number, type, date, etc., and also the IRP-generated details like the IRN
Details of Items

9

 24

33

 Details of line items like quantity, HSN, tax rate, etc.

Invoice Reference Details

 2 8

10

 Provides reference for previously generated or supplementary documents for the invoice
Additional Details of Items

1

 8

9

 Extra details which are related to line items like batch, barcode, serial numbers, etc.

Details of the Suppliers

 5 5

10

 GSTIN and address of the suppliers
Details of the Buyers

6

 3

9

 GSTIN and address of the buyers
‘Ship To’ Details

7

2

9

 Address and other information like mode of supply, type of transaction, etc.

‘Dispatch From’ Details

 4 4

8

 Address and other information like E-commerce operator through which it was dispatched, state, etc.
*Details of Supporting Documents

0

 2

2

 The URLs which support the documentation, if any
*Payment Details

4

 5

9

 Payment terms, account information, etc.
Total 49 68 117

These sections are non-compulsory. If used, the mandatory fields are highly recommended. For other sections, ‘compulsory’ indicates that it is essential for registering on the IRP. In the case of line item, the data would repeat for each of these.

The E-invoicing Workflow

After the taxpayers generate the invoice using their respective accounting/ERP systems, the procedure of getting it registered with the government on the IRP, should be carried out.

There exists two components for the E-invoicing workflow namely,

  • The communication between the government and the taxpayers
  • The communication between GST, E-way bill system, and the IRP

Now let us look into the details of these two E-invoicing components.

The communication between the government and the taxpayers

The taxpayers are required to upload the compulsory fields from the invoices to the IRP in the JSON format. Further, there is provision to upload it through different methods like offline tools, GSPs (GST Suvidha Providers), web portal, mobile app, SMS, and via direct API.

Apart from providing a standard format for E-invoice, the government has also offered a model in which a unique IRN would be generated, which is technically referred to as ‘hash’, using SHA-256. Although the taxpayers could generate the IRN using their respective systems, the invoice would be valid only if it is registered with the IRP. The IRN thus generated along with the digital signature and QR code, would be reverted to the taxpayers through the same channel.

The communication between GST, E-way bill system, and the IRP

Considering the high volume of transactions on the IRP system while getting the invoice registered, the IRP comes with multiple nodes known as ‘Registrars’. The taxpayers have the option to register their invoices via any of these Registrars, and further, the latter preserves the data for the past 24 hours.

The IRP system is connected to the GST system, which acts as the repository of all IRNs, so as to ensure that there is no duplication of records. This arrangement also enables the populating of GST ANX-1 for the suppliers. Further, the E-invoice data is made available in the E-way bill system, and the transporters/taxpayers would just have to update the information on Part B in order to obtain a valid E-way Bill Number.

In fact, the taxpayers would have to upload the invoice data only once to the IRP system, wherein, the GST and E-way bill requirements would be dealt with.

To conclude, the basics of the E-invoice standard has been dealt with in detail here, which helps you to understand the entire process in a better manner.