All about GePP facility under e-Invoicing

GePP facility has been introduced under e-Invoicing to facilitate those businesses which cannot integrate with IRP. The system is mandatory from 1st January 2021 for all businesses whose aggregate turnover exceeds Rs.100 crore in any of the preceding financial years from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020, as per notification no.88/2020.

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 GePP facility under e-invoicing and who can use it?

GePP is GST e-invoice preparing and printing tool. It is an excel-based tool to help the taxpayers who do not have ERP solution to enter the invoice details in a user-friendly form and print the e-invoice with QR code by downloading the IRN from e-invoice portal.

Where to access the GePP facility?

GST e-invoice preparing and printing tool is available on the e-invoice portal under the ‘Bulk generation tool’ option available by navigating to ‘Help tab’> ‘Tools’ on the homepage. The screenshot from the homepage is given below:

Salient features or functionalities of GePP facility

GePP is an excel-based tool having the below functionalities:

1. It is a very simple form in which invoice details can be entered one by one.
2. It facilitates the creation of supplier profiles as well as recipient masters.
3. It helps in the creation of HSN masters.
4. It helps in preparation of e-invoice JSON file and generation of IRN.
5. It helps in downloading and importing the QR code in the tool.
6. Lastly, it enables printing of e-invoice from the tool.

Benefits and Limitations of the GePP facility

Benefits of the GePP facility are:

1. It helps the taxpayers to enter data offline. To prepare as well as print the e-invoice with QR code.
2. It enables the exchange of data with the e-invoice system as per its interface format.
3. Master data of suppliers, recipients and products will help in auto-population of details for easier e-invoice generation.
4. There is the option to maintain the details of payment received towards e-invoices.

Limitations of GePP facility are:

1. This tool is best suitable for small taxpayers who do not have an ERP system and are issuing 10-12 invoices (B2B and export) per day.
2. The entry of profile details, recipient master and product master is mandatory before entering the e-invoices.
3. A separate GePP tool must be downloaded for every GSTIN.
4. A maximum of ten invoices can be entered using this tool.
5. A maximum of ten invoices can be kept pending for IRN generation.
6. Importing IRN details is mandatory to print e-invoice.
7. This tool does not validate GSTINs and HSN codes.

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Difference between the GePP facility and the Bulk IRN generation tools

Bulk IRN generation tools facilitate the generation of e-invoices by uploading multiple invoices at a time. It is an excel based tool which enables the export of invoice details from the taxpayers billing software or ERP. The IRP will then accept the bulk upload request of JSON files of these invoices.

After verification, the invoice registration portal will generate a unique invoice reference number and quick response code for each e-invoice and then digitally sign the same. It has four different formats available to suit the requirements of different classes of taxpayers.

Format A: Businesses with one or two items in their invoices can use this format.

Format B: This format is suitable for businesses having several line items in their invoices.

Format C: This format is suitable for businesses having many line items in the invoices with payment details, reference details, etc.

Format D: This format is suitable for businesses having a large number of line items in the invoices with payment details, reference details, etc.

Whereas GePP is useful only for small taxpayers who do not have ERP. They can directly enter the invoice details into this tool. It has an interface with IRP and thus enables the generation of IRN and e-invoice JSON. It allows import of QR code and then printing of e-invoice.

Thus, bulk IRN generation is a wider term, and GePP facility is one of the bulk IRN generation tools useful for small taxpayers.

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