Limited roll-out of GST e-invoice system unlikely to serve purpose

Limited roll-out of GST e-invoice system unlikely to serve purpose The 'limited' implementation of e-invoicing system may not serve the purpose for which it is being implemented, feel experts. The government has decided to go ahead with the implementation of e-invoicing system for companies with turnover of Rs 500 crore or more from October 1, 2020. The purpose of implementing e-invoices is to have invoices in a particular format, which can be read and accepted by different ERPs used across companies. Introduction of ERPs would result in elimination of multiple reporting by taxpayer in different formats, once for generating e-way bill and the second in the form of filing returns. What e-invoice will necessarily do is eliminate the need of data entry of purchase invoice by the buyer as that will be shared electronically and read by the accounting/billing system of the buyer even before the goods arrive. Reporting of e-invoice to GST portal, generated using prescribed standard, will lead to pre-filled sales and purchase returns. However, in the first phase of implementation the government is making e-invoices mandatory only for businesses with turnover of Rs 500 crore or more. Earlier, it had planned to implement the system for companies with turnover of Rs 100 crore or more.
The problem with a limited launch means that while large companies will have to implement it, their vendors who could be smaller companies with turnover less than Rs 500 crore may not implement it in the first phase, and hence the desired result of pre-filled sales and purchase returns may not be achieved. Source::: Business Today, dated 30/07/2020.