Govt notifies mandatory e-invoicing by biz with Rs 100 cr turnover from Jan

The government has notified mandatory requirement of e-invoicing for B2B transactions for businesses with a turnover over Rs 100 crore with effect from January 1, 2021.

Under Goods and Services Tax (GST) law,e-invoicing for business-to-business (B2B) transactions is mandatoryfor companies with turnover of over Rs 500 crore from October 1.

In a notification, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said e-invoicing will be extended to businesses with a turnover over Rs 100 crore from January 1.

Under e-invoicing, taxpayers have to generate invoices on their internal systems (ERP/accounting/billing software) and then report it online to the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP).

The IRP will validate the information provided in the invoices and return the digitally signed e-invoices with a unique 'Invoice Reference Number (IRN)' along with a QR Codeto the taxpayer.

Deloitte India Senior Advisor Prakash Kumar said this will further aid in curbing tax evasion and increasing tax collections.

However, going by the resounding success of the October 1 rollout for the larger companies, MSMEs too should indeed be able to comply with the new requirement, Kumar added.

EY Tax Partner Abhishek Jain said "With only approximately 50 more days, these mid-sized companies would need to soon gear up their processes/ IT systems to enable compliance with this new invoicing regulation.

Nangia Andersen India Director Tanushree Roy said with only a few days left, such companies would need to gear up their IT and invoicing systems as well as train their employees to comply with this new compliance requirement.

While this move of the government would help in automating the tax compliances, this is also expected to lead to efficient management of tax compliances, Roy added.