- The government has decided to lower the threshold for businesses to generate e-invoice for business-to-business (B2B) transactions, from Rs 10 crore to Rs 5 crore, and has rolled out the automated return scrutiny module for GST returns in a backend application for central tax officers.
- The automated return scrutiny module
- This will enable the officers to scrutinise GST returns of centre-administered taxpayers selected on the basis of data analytics and risks identified by the system.
- Discrepancies on account of risks associated with a return will be displayed to the tax officers.
- They will interact with the taxpayers through the GSTN common portal for communication of discrepancies.
- The automated return scrutiny module has already commenced with the scrutiny of GST returns for FY 2019-20, with the requisite data already with the tax officers.
Changes for e-invoicing
- The government has also lowered the threshold for businesses to generate e-invoice for business-to-business (B2B) transactions to Rs 5 crore from Rs 10 crore under GST.
- At present, businesses with turnover of Rs 10 crore and above are required to generate e-invoice for all B2B transactions.
What does the e-invoicing envisage?
- The GST Council had approved the standard of e-invoice with the primary objective to enable interoperability across the entire GST ecosystem.
- Under this, a phased implementation was proposed to ensure a common standard for all invoices.
- An e-invoice generated by one software should be capable of being read by any other software and through machine readability, an invoice can then be uniformly interpreted.
- With a uniform invoicing system, the tax authorities are able to pre-populate the return and reduce the reconciliation issues.
- With a high number of cases involving fake invoices and fraud availment of input tax credit, GST authorities have pushed for implementation of this e-invoicing system which is expected to help to curb the actions of tax evaders.
SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB