The GST network has said that businesses with a turnover of Rs 100 crore and above will have to upload their electronic invoices on the IRP within 7 days from the date of issue of such invoices from May 1.
At present, businesses upload such invoices on the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) on the current date, irrespective of the date of issue of such invoices.
In an advisory to taxpayers, the GST Network (GSTN) said that the government has decided to impose a time limit on reporting of old invoices on the e-invoice IRP portal for taxpayers whose aggregate annual turnover is more than Rs 100 crore or equal to that.
“To ensure timely compliance, this category of taxpayers shall not be permitted to report invoices older than 7 days on the date of reporting,” GSTN said.
In order to provide sufficient time to taxpayers to comply with this requirement, this new format will be implemented from May 1, 2023.
This restriction will be applicable on Invoices, and there will be no time restriction on reporting of Debit/Credit Notes.
Giving an example, GSTN said that if the date of an invoice is April 1, 2023, it cannot be reported after April 8, 2023.
The verification system built into the Invoice Registration Portal will block the user from reporting an invoice after a 7-day period.
Therefore, it is necessary for taxpayers to ensure that they report the invoices within the 7-day period provided by the new deadline, GSTN said.
As per GST law, businesses cannot avail Input Tax Credit (ITC) if invoices are not uploaded on IRP.
AMRG & Associates Senior Partner Rajat Mohan said this technological change will prevent backdating of e-invoices by large companies.
“After successfully implementing this for large taxpayers, the government is expected to implement these changes for all taxpayers in a phased manner,” Mohan said.
Currently, businesses with a turnover of ₹10 crore and above are required to generate electronic invoices for all B2B transactions.
Under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law, e-invoicing was made mandatory for business-to-business (B2B) transactions for companies with a turnover of more than ₹500 crore from October 1, 2020, which was later was extended to those with turnover. Above ₹100 crore with effect from January 1, 2021.
From April 1, 2021, companies with a turnover of more than ₹50 crore were generating B2B e-invoices, and from April 1, 2022, the limit was reduced to ₹20 crore. From October 1, 2022, the limit was further reduced to ₹. 100 million.
EY Tax Partner Saurabh Agarwal said the implementation of timelines for reporting of invoices on IRP will help administer compliance and is another major step towards digitisation.
Agarwal said, “It can also help in increasing GST collection when the said threshold of Rs 100 crore turnover is substantially reduced or mandatory for all taxpayers required to generate IRN (invoice registration number).” is done.”