Changes in e-way bill after e-Invoicing

The e-invoice system under GST has become mandatory from 1st October 2020 for all registered taxpayers having turnover greater than Rs.500 crore in FY 2019-20. Thereafter, it got extended to businesses with turnover more than Rs.100 crore from 1st January 2021. Currently, it will apply to those taxpayers with turnover ranging between Rs.50 crore to Rs.100 crore from 1st April 2021. The annual turnover to be considered may belong to any preceding year from FY 2017-18.

Latest Update

30th June 2021
The CBIC has issued a notification seeking to waive the penalty imposed on non-compliance of dynamic QR code provisions for B2C invoices between 1st December 2020 and 30th September 2021.

1st June 2021
CBIC has notified vide Central Tax Notification no.23 dated 1st June 2021 that the e-invoicing system shall not apply to a government department and local authority.

30th March 2021
The CBIC has issued a notification seeking to waive the penalty imposed on non-compliance of dynamic QR code provisions for B2C invoices between 1st December 2020 and 30th June 2021, provided the said person complies with the provisions of the said notification from 1st July 2021.

8th March 2021
The CBIC has notified that e-Invoicing will be applicable from 1st April 2021 for businesses with an aggregate turnover of more than Rs.50 crores (in any financial year from FY 2017-18 onwards).

29th November 2020
The CBIC issued a notification seeking to waive the penalty imposed on non-compliance of dynamic QR code provisions for B2C invoices between 1st December 2020 and 31st March 2021, provided the eligible registered person complies with these provisions from 1st April 2021.

10th November 2020
The taxpayers having an aggregate turnover exceeding Rs.100 crore should implement e-invoicing from 1st January 2021.

1st October 2020
The applicable taxpayers have been given a grace period of 30 days for generating an Invoice Reference Number (IRN). However, this grace period is valid for the invoices issued between 1st October 2020 to 31st October 2020.

30th September 2020
Now, the aggregate turnover should be checked from FY 2017-18 till FY 2019-20, for checking the applicability of e-invoicing. Also, the date of implementation of the dynamic QR Code for B2C invoices has been extended until 1st December 2020.

30th July 2020
1. A new refined format of e-invoice has been notified by CBIC adding 20 new fields and removing 13 fields. Certain fields have undergone changes in character length as well.
2. e-Invoicing system shall apply to those taxpayers with an annual turnover exceeding Rs 500 crore instead of Rs 100 crore.
3. Special Economic Zones (SEZ) units shall also be exempted from issuing e-invoices.

23rd March 2020
The implementation of e-invoicing and the QR code has been deferred to 1st October 2020.
Exemption from e-Invoicing and QR code has been granted to sectors such as insurance, banking, financial institutions, NBFCs, GTA, passenger transportation service and movie tickets.

What is the link between e-way bills and e-invoice?

An e-way bill has two parts; Part A contains invoice details such as GSTIN of the supplier and recipient, invoice number, delivery address, HSN codes, etc. Part B has transporter details such as transporter ID, vehicle number, etc. Under the present system, both parts are generated from the e-way bill portal by the taxpayer by updating invoice details and transporter details manually.

The implementation of e-invoicing will have an impact on the e way bill system as well. The existing users of e-way bill portal can use the same credentials for login to the e-invoice portal instead of getting a new registration. With the implementation of e-invoicing, e-way bills will be auto-populated from the e-invoicing portal, unlike the current system. Once the e-invoice is successfully validated, the Part A & Part B of the e-way bill will be auto-populated provided with some optional details (transporter ID and mode of transport) in the e-invoice are updated. The motive behind these changes is to simplify the process of creating e-way bills.

There are facilities provided on the e-invoice portal for :

• Generation of an e-way bill using IRN: A user has to enter the IRN to generate an e-way bill on the e-invoice portal.
• Bulk generation of e-way bill: The government provides bulk generation facility for businesses, which have large numbers of transactions each day.
• Print e-way bill: A user can select the print EWB option under the e-way bill option and then enter the e-way bill number. On entering the EWB number, the e-way bill will be displayed with an option to print.

How will e-way bills be generated after the e-invoicing system gets implemented?

There will be no change in the process of generating e-way bills. However, an additional facility to generate e-way bills from IRN will be provided. A user can follow the below steps:

• Upload the invoice to the invoice registration portal.
• The GSTN will verify the mandatory details, and upon successful validation, the IRP will issue a unique number called invoice reference number and a QRcode on the invoice.
• This data will be transferred to the e-way bill portal, where section 12 of e-invoice schema (e-way bill details) is reported. The APIs are used to generate e-way bill from IRN.
• A user should then log in to the e-way bill portal and enter the IRN of the invoice for which he needs to generate an e-way bill.
• Part-A and Part-B will be auto-populated if the required details are updated in e-invoice.
• Click submit. If there are no errors, the e-way bill will be generated, and one can download it as a JSON or PDF file.

Impact of amendment or cancellation of e-invoice on the e-way bill

Currently, there is no provision to address the cancellation of e-way bills through the cancellation of e-invoice. In the case of false invoices, the same errors will flow in e-way bills as well. Recently, the NIC clarified that the e-way bills must be cancelled first followed by the IRN. An e-way bill cannot be generated for cancelled IRN.

Impact on businesses due to e-way bill integration with e-invoicing

The objective behind the integration of the e-invoicing system with the e-way bill system is to make the entire process easy and automated. Along with this, the government has also linked e-way bills to the GST return filing. The e-way bill generation will be blocked for the taxpayers who have two or more consecutive GST returns pending to be filed. These integrations will have the following benefits for the businesses:

• Easy compliance for the taxpayers.
• Ensuring accuracy by automating the process.

It will also benefit the government in ensuring a reduced tax evasion.

FAQs on e-way bill integration with e-invoicing

Is e-invoicing mandatory and to whom?

At present, e-invoicing became mandatory for all taxpayers from 1st October 2020, whose aggregate turnover in a financial year exceeds Rs.500 crore. Thereafter, taxpayers with turnover more than Rs.100 crore must comply from 1st January 2021 whereas taxpayers with turnover more than Rs.50 crore must begin complying from 1st April 2021. Eventually, all taxpayers may be brought under the tax ambit in a phased manner.

Will regular e-way bill generation continue to be allowed instead of generating through IRP?

Yes, regular e-way bill generation will continue along with an additional facility of generating e-way bills with IRN.

How can I generate e-way bills using IRN?

It can be done with the help of API, which will be released shortly.

Will the EWB and IRN system run independently as of now?

Yes, both the systems will run independently as of now. But, gradually direct EWB generation will be blocked for specified taxpayers.

Is re-generation of EWB and IRN on the same document possible?

Re-generation of EWB on the same document is possible but not for IRN as per policy.

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