Mandatory uploading e-invoices within 7 days after transaction: GSTN

Businesses with annual turnovers of Rs 100 crore and above will have to upload their electronic invoices on the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) within seven days of their issuance from May 1, the Goods and Services Network (GSTN) has said.

“To ensure timely compliance, taxpayers in this category will not be allowed to report invoices older than seven days on the date of reporting,” the GSTN has said, adding that the validation system built into the IRP portal will disallow the user from reporting the invoice after the seven-day window. The restriction will apply to all the invoices and including reporting debit and credit notes.

Under the GST law, businesses cannot avail input tax credit if invoices are not uploaded on the IRP. However, at present, companies can upload e-invoices at any time, irrespective of the date of their issuance.

Experts said the move would help boost GST collections and ensure timely passing of ITC to recipients.

One Expert said the implementation of timelines for reporting invoices on IRP would help in administering compliances and is another great move towards digitalisation. “This may also aid in increasing the GST collection once the limit of Rs 100-crore turnover is reduced significantly or it is made mandatory for all assesses required to generate Invoice Reference Number.”

As per another expert, the move would help in streamlining compliances and also in timely passing of credit to the recipients, which was the initial objective for introducing e-invoicing norms. “Once successfully implemented, the threshold of seven days is expected to be implemented even to taxpayers of lower turnover brackets, in a phased manner,” he said.