What is e-Invoicing?
‘e-Invoicing’ or ‘electronic invoicing’ is a Green initiative by the Government. In this system, all the B2B (Business to Business) invoices are authenticated electronically by GSTN.
Under the proposed electronic invoicing system, the details of the invoice will be uploaded on the Government’s Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) to get the Invoice Reference Number (IRN) managed by the GST Network (GSTN).
e-Invoice does not mean preparation or generation of taxpayer’s invoice on a government portal. It is only an intimation that the invoice has been issued to the buyer, by registering that invoice on the government portal. All invoice information will be transferred from this portal to both the GST portal and e-way bill portal in real-time thereby eliminating the need for manual entry while filing ANX-1/GST returns and generation of part-A of the e-way bills.
How Electronic invoicing is beneficial for businesses?
Businesses will have the following key benefits by using e-Invoice initiated by GSTN:
- 1. e-Invoice reduces mismatch errors by resolving and plugging the major gap in data reconciliation under GST.
- 2. e-Invoices made on one software can be read by another, permitting interoperability and decreasing data entry errors.
- 3. It overcomes the challenges of paper invoicing.
- 4. e-Invoicing to curb tax evasion.
- 5. Real-time tracking of invoices.
- 6. Uniformity in fields of invoices.
- 7. Reduction of costs of paper, printing, courier, etc.
- 8. Eliminates the possibilities of creating fake GST invoices.
- 9. Faster availability of genuine input tax credit.
- 10. e-Invoicing delivers transparency and uniformity in the fields of invoices.
- 11. e-Invoice boosts automation when it comes to the GST return filing process.
What type of business is liable for e-Invoicing?
E-invoicing shall be applicable to Businesses having turnover above Rs. 100Cr in the previous financial year.
When will e-Invoicing get implemented?
Date of applicability of e-invoice has been extended from 1st April, 2020 to 1st October, 2020.
What type of documents are to be reported to the GST System?
A taxpayer needs to upload the following documents to the IRP system -
- 1. Business to Business Invoices
- 2. Business to Government Invoices
- 3. Export Invoices
- 4. Reverse Charge Invoices (B2B)
- 5. Credit Notes
- 6. Debit Notes
*It may be noted that presently the Business to Consumer (B2C) invoices are not considered for e-Invoice.