Electronic Invoicing Under GST

E-Invoicing or Electronic Invoicing is the largest revolution that govt is imposing on trade and industry. Advanced use of technology is must to curb the tax evasions and for control. The Central board for direct taxes already uses the Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning for E -Assessments. E- Appeals. The same way CBIC has come forward to implement E –Invoicing for real time governance. Government introduced E-invoicing to keep a check on fake invoices, claiming bogus ITC and others.

What is E- Invoicing: E- Invoicing or Electronic Invoicing is not generating invoices in Invoice Registration Portal (IRP). This portal is exclusively for maintaining, administering, generating and monitoring E Invoices. e – Invoice System The main misconception of many taxpayers is that from now, they can directly generate invoices in IRP.  This is entirely a myth. The taxpayers need to generate their invoices using their existing software’s as they used to do earlier. The Details of already generated invoices should be uploaded in IRP where the GSTN will authenticate and validate  the information provided and in return generates the

a) Unique Invoice Reference Number (IRN)

b) QR Code and

c) Digitally sign the Invoice.

The IRN and QR code should be printed on the Invoice, with the help of QR Code any external agencies can know the details of the Invoice.

When it is going to applicable: The GST council in its 39^th meeting held on 14-03-20 deferred the implementation of this initiative to 01-10-20. Earlier GST council in its 37^th meeting decided to implement E invoicing from 01-04-20 and trial run from 01-01-20.

Who are Eligible:  The taxpayers whose aggregate turnover exceeds 500 crores should generate E Invoicing from 01^st Oct 20.  The turnover is to be calculated on PAN based. Insurance, Banking, financial institutions, NBFCs, GTA, passenger transportation services are excluded from the list of eligible taxpayers.

What are the advantages:

• Elimination of fake invoices
• Availing excess input tax credits
• Avoid multiple submissions in GSTR-1 or Annx-1, E Waybill
• Monitoring the Invoices and keep a track on them.

What are major misconceptions:

• Many taxpayers think this process takes too much time which is an extra burden, but it is not a time-consuming process. we should integrate IRP with our software’s to avoid time consuming.
• What is the Invoice number whether it is IRN generated by the IRP or invoice number generated in ERP – The invoice number will be the same as generated by the ERP and not the IRN

Steps for Generating E- Invoice:

E Invoices can be generated in offline.

• Download the bulk upload schema from tools in help menu of e – Invoice System
• Now enter the invoice details after which u need to click on validation, If any errors were found it will be shown.
• After successful validation click on Generate JSON.
• Now you need to login to the IRP. If you have registered in the E-way bill portal u can login with the same credentials of E Waybill or else, you need to register in the IRP.
• On logging in to the e invoice portal, select the e invoice option and bulk IRN option
• Now upload the saved JSON file and generate the IRNs for invoices
• After generation download the IRN form with details.

There are other methods for generation of E invoices i.e., through API, the detailed steps can be followed  here https://taxguru.in/goods-and-service-tax/brief-note-on-e-invoice-under-gst.html

Information to be provided in Schema

Entire information is divided into sections, where we need to provide the required information

1. Document Details: Document date, type and Number should be entered

2. Buyer Details:   GSTIN, Legal name, trade name, address, phone number & e- mail

3. Dispatch Details:   Name and address of dispatch should be provided it is an optional field

4. Shipping details:   Shipping GSTIN and address should be provided (Optional Fields)

5. Product details:    Product details like Quantity, Rate of tax, HSN code, rate etc.,

6. Batch details:    Batch Name, Expiry date and warranty date should be provided

7. Value Details:    Taxable amount, CGST, SGST, IGST, Discount, rounding off etc.,

8. Export Details:   Shipping bill, shipping date, port, foreign currency

9. E-way bill details:   Transporter ID, name, mode, distance, vehicle no and type

At the top sheet taxpayers are requested to provide Yes/No to the fields that are applicable to them.

By enabling them schema will remove or add relevant  fields applicable to them.

Sample Invoice format: