In the 37th GST Council meeting held on 20.09.2019 it was recommended to introduce electronic invoice (e-invoice) in GST in phased manner.

‘e-Invoicing’ means reporting details of specified GST documents to a Government-notified portal called as Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) and obtaining a Invoice Reference Number (IRN). It doesn’t mean generation of Invoice by a Government portal.

Following are the IRPs:

e-invoicing is applicable to the taxpayers having aggregate turnover (based on PAN) in any preceding financial year since 2017-18 exceeds the prescribed limit (as given in below table).

e-invoice is applicable to tax invoice, export invoice, Credit Notes and Debit Notes in respect of outward supply to registered customer (B2B Supplies.

It is to clarify that the taxpayers will continue to create their GST Invoices on their own Accounting/Billing/ERP Systems. These Invoices will required to be reported to IRP. On reporting, the IRP returns the signed e-Invoice with unique IRN along with a QR Code. Then, the Invoice (with QR Code) can be issued to receiver. A GST Invoice will be valid only with a valid IRN.

e-invoice is not applicable to SEZ Units, Insurance, Banking [including NBFCs], Goods Transport Agency [transporting goods by road in goods carriage], Passenger Transport Services, Multiplex Cinema Admissions.

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