GST Turnover Threshold for e-Invoice may be Fixed at ₹ 50 Cr in the Next Meet

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

The GST council would next meet on June 20, 2019, and is likely to propose ₹ 50 cr as the t/o threshold for entities to generate e-invoice on a centralized government portal for business-to-business (B2B) sales. The GST Council will take a final decision on the same after consulting with the states.

Analysis of return filing shows that as many as 68,041 businesses have reported a turnover of over ₹ 50 cr and accounted for 66.6% of total GST paid in 2017-18.

These businesses account for just 1.02% of GST payers and make up for almost 30% of the B2B invoices generated in the system. “The turnover threshold for entities to generate e-invoice for B2B sales is likely to be fixed at ₹50 crore if the GST Council agrees. With this threshold, big taxpayers who are better placed technologically to integrate their software would have to generate e-invoice for B2B sales,” the official said.

E-invoice generation would save from the twin activities of filing returns and uploading invoices. And, for the Government, this would help in curbing invoice misuse and tax evasion.

The official further said that under the current system, there is a gap between the time of generation invoices and filing of sales returns.

The number of entities filing monthly summary sales return GSTR-3B and paying GST is higher than those filing outward supply return GSTR-1, in which invoice-wise details have to be filed. Analysis suggests the gap could be either because of genuine difficulty in uploading invoices or with the intention of misusing Input Tax Credit (ITC), the official said.

The ministry is planning to roll out the e-invoice system by September. The official further said that data analysis shows that as many as 3.9 crore B2B invoices worth above ₹ 50,000 are generated every month, which works out to be 12 lakh per day.

The number increases to about 1 crore per day if all B2B invoices generated irrespective of amount are taken into account.

The official said 1 crore invoice generation per day can be handled by GSTN/NIC as this would be similar to the number of e-way bills currently being generated on the portal.

The official said that the ministry feels that e-invoice would increase ease of doing business if it becomes part of using the business process and there is no need for additional reporting.