Updates on e-invoicing under GST WEF 01.01.2021

From 1-1-2021, Government has mandated e-invoicing for the taxpayers with aggregate turnover exceeding Rs. 100 Cr. (in any preceding financial year from 2017-18 onwards).

1. Certain set of taxpayers had started e-invoicing from 1st October, 2020. In the month of October, 2020, about 4.95 Crore invoices were generated by 27400 GSTINs.

2. The list of GSTINs (State-wise, along with Name of entity) who are actually generating IRN on e-invoice production portal (IRP) has been published. The list is being updated from time to time.

3. From 1-1-2021, Government has mandated e-invoicing for the taxpayers with aggregate turnover exceeding Rs. 100 Cr. (in any preceding financial year from 2017-18 onwards). The notification dated 10-11-2020 issued in this regard can be accessed HERE.

Testing for taxpayers with 100 Cr. + Turnover:

4. For all the notified taxpayers, API sandbox/testing is enabled since 29th October, 2020.

5. The trial e-invoice portal (https://einvoice1-trial.nic.in/) for testing the upload of invoices by notified taxpayers through offline utility (bulk generation tool) was activated from 6th November 2020.

6. Taxpayers need to note that the e-invoices/IRNs and e-way bills generated on trial einvoice portal (https://einvoice1-trial.nic.in/) are for testing purpose only.

They don’t have any legal validity and shall not be used for regular supplies, i.e. for actual movement of goods etc.

7. As a facilitation measure, all the GSTINs pertaining to taxpayers with aggregate turnover above the prescribed limit (as per latest notification) have been enabled for testing on the trial portal.

The ‘enablement’ is primarily to ensure only the notified taxpayers (and not any taxpayer at their option) are able to register and test reporting of invoices on the portal. The enabled taxpayers however need to register again on the portal.

8. One can search the status of enablement of a GSTIN on e-invoice trial portal: https://einvoice1-trial.nic.in/ > Search > e-invoice status of taxpayer

Please note that this listing of GSTINs is solely based on the turnover of GSTR-3B as per GST System. It may contain exempt entities or those for whom e-invoicing is not applicable for some other reason.

Note: The enablement status on trial portal or production portal (IRP) doesn’t mean that the taxpayer is supposed to do e-invoicing. If e-invoicing is not applicable to a taxpayer, they need not be concerned about the enablement status and may please ignore it.

9. In case any registered person is required to start e-invoicing from notified date but not enabled for testing on trial portal, he/she may request for enablement at trail portal through the e-invoice Production Portal (https://einvoice1.gst.gov.in > Registration > e-invoice enablement.

Please note that the requested GSTIN will be updated on trial portal on the next day and after that the testing can be started. It may also be noted that the enablement of notified taxpayers (Rs. 100 Cr. +) on IRP, i.e. e-invoice Production Portal, will be done towards the end of December, 2020 so that they will be able to report e-invoices from 1-1-2021 onwards.

10. For businesses who are presently using one or other Accounting/Billing/ERP Systems to create and manage their invoices, there are several modes for API integration. Details are given HERE.

11. Some businesses may not have their own ERP/Accounting Software or have few invoices to report. They can download the free offline utility (‘bulk generation tool’) from e-invoice portal. Using this, invoice data can be easily uploaded on IRP for generation of IRN.

Below helpful videos are made available for taxpayers who wish to use offline utility for generation of IRN:

Video-1 (e-Invoice: Registration on Portal and Generation of IRN)

Video-2 (IRN Generation using Bulk Tools; Video No. 2 in the page)

e-invoice – Useful Resources

12. Revised set of FAQs on e-invoice (Law/Procedure) were published. The new questions added in the latest version (1.3) were highlighted in PDF version for easy identification.

FAQs relating to registration and log in on the e-invoice portal can be accessed at https://taxguru.in/goods-and-service-tax/registration-login-gst-e-invoice-portal-faqs.html

FAQs relating to APIs/Testing/Sandbox can be accessed at:  https://taxguru.in/goods-and-service-tax/apis-testing-sandbox-gst-e-invoice-faqs.html

13.Many help videos on various aspects of e-invoicing including frequently asked queries are made available at below links:

https://einvoice1-trial.nic.in/Others/CBT

‘e-invoice’ play list on GSTN’s YouTube Channel

e-invoice – Help Options:

14. Any technical issues arising on

A. e-invoice trial/testing portal (https://einvoice1-trial.nic.in/) or

B. IRP/Production portal (https://einvoice1.gst.gov.in/) or

C. Use of e-invoice Offline utilities (bulk generation tools) or

D. APIs/Sandbox (https://einv-apisandbox.nic.in/),

Please report on GST Self-Service Portal (https://selfservice.gstsystem.in/)

For detailed information on e-invoice help options, CLICK HERE.

Note: The earlier support for e-invoice issues via e-mail has been discontinued.

15. Common errors while reporting invoices to IRP were compiled and made available on e-invoice portal. The taxpayers may please take note of these during testing phase itself.

16. In case of errors, viz. ‘GSTIN is not active’ or ‘GSTIN is not present in e-invoice system”, facility is made available so that the GSTIN can be entered for checking on real time basis with GST portal and update the same.

17. On GST portal (Log in > ‘Search Taxpayer’), a new facility was added recently by which one can view the aggregate turnover slab for a taxpayer.