GST assesses, with a turnover of ₹5 crore or more but less than ₹ 10 crore will now be able to familiarize themselves with the invoice reporting mechanism and ensure a seamless transition to the e-Invoice system.

This is critical as these assesses mandatorily require issuing e-invoices  from August 01.

“GSTN has enabled all eligible taxpayers with an Aggregate Annual Turnover (AATO) 5 crores and above as per GSTN (GST Network or IT backbone of the indirect tax system) records in any preceding financial year for e-Invoicing. These taxpayers are now enabled on all six IRP (Invoice Registration Portal) portals including NIC-IRP for e-Invoice reporting,” an advisory issued by GSTN said. Further, an assessee can check his enablement status on the e-Invoice portal at https://einvoice.gst.gov.in .

“It would be in the interest of trade to register and utilize the sandbox testing facility available at the IRP portals,” the advisory added.

As per Rule 48(4) of CGST Rules, notified class of registered persons have to prepare an invoice by uploading specified particulars of the invoice (in FORM GST INV-01) on IRP and obtain an Invoice Reference Number (IRN). After following the above ‘e-invoicing’ process, the invoice copy containing inter alia, the IRN (with QR Code) issued by the notified supplier to the buyer is commonly referred to as an ‘e-invoice’ in GST.

Because of the standard scheme, ‘e-invoicing’ facilitates the exchange of the invoice document (structured invoice data) between a supplier and a buyer in an integrated electronic format. It is important to note that ‘e-invoice’ in ‘e-invoicing’ doesn’t mean invoice generation by a government portal. The invoice not registered on the portal will not be valid. In such a situation, input tax credit (ITC) on the same cannot be availed by the recipient and will attract applicable penalties. 

The advisory further said that the enablement status indicated on the e-Invoice portal does not indicate a legal obligation on taxpayers to use e-Invoicing. However, actual liability to generate IRN shall be checked by taxpayers for applicable notification in the light of facts pertaining to them.

While the listing of enabled GSTINs is purely based on the turnover criteria reported in GSTR-3B, taxpayers need to confirm whether they fulfil the conditions outlined in the notification/rules. Thus, “it is the legal responsibility of the concerned taxpayer, both buyers and suppliers, to ensure compliance,” the advisory said. In case a taxpayer who is otherwise but not auto- enabled on the e-Invoice portal, can self-enable for e-Invoicing using the functionality provided on the portal.

“All eligible taxpayers should familiarize themselves with the e-Invoicing requirements and take the necessary steps to ensure compliance with the new threshold,” GSTN advised.

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