All about Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) under GST

IRP, known as the Invoice Registration Portal is instrumental in validating the genuineness of the invoices used in the GST ecosystem. It generates and assigns IRN to every GST invoice.

The infrastructure to support the trial version of the e-invoicing system was first made available for voluntary use from 1st January 2020. The Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) plays a key role in running the show.

Latest Updates

10th May 2023
CBIC mandated e-invoicing for taxpayers with ₹5 Cr+ turnover (in any financial year from 2017-18) w.e.f 1st August 2023.

06th May 2023
The GST department has deferred the time limit of 7 days to report the old e-invoices on the IRP portals by three months. Further, the department is yet to announce the new implementation date.

13th April 2023
As per the GST Network's advisories dated 12th April 2023 and 13th April 2023, taxpayers with annual turnover equal to or more than Rs.100 crore must report tax invoices and credit-debit notes to IRP within 7 days of invoice date from 1st May 2023.

11th October 2022
The GST Council may implement the next phase of e-invoicing for businesses with an annual turnover of more than Rs.5 crore from 1st January 2023. The system may get extended to businesses with a turnover of over Rs.1 crore by the end of the next fiscal year.

1st August 2022 
The e-Invoicing system for B2B transactions has now been extended to those with an annual aggregate turnover of more than Rs.10 crore up to Rs.20 crore starting from 1st October 2022, vide notification no. 17/2022. 

24th February 2022
The e-Invoicing system will get extended to those annual aggregate turnover of more than Rs.20 crore up to Rs.50 crore starting from 1st April 2022, vide notification no. 1/2022.
 

What is Invoice Registration Portal (IRP)

The Invoice Registration Portals (IRPs) act as Registrars and operate through a website to assign Invoice Reference Numbers (IRNs) to each invoice/credit note/debit note. The invoice/credit-debit note details can be uploaded onto the IRP using a prescribed mode to either generate or validate the IRN of the invoice uploaded by defined timelime, if applicable. Only such invoices/CDNs with an authorised IRN will be considered valid as per law. From 1st May 2023, those businesses with annual turnover equal to or more than Rs.100 crore must report invoicess/CDNss on IRP within 7 days from the invoice/CDN date.

However, on 6th May 2023, the department has deferred the time limit of 7 days to report the old e-invoices on the IRP portals by three months. Also, the department is yet to announce the new implementation date.

At present, NIC-managed IRP is in use at https://einvoice1.gst.gov.in/. Apart from that, Clear is GOI’s certified/authorised IRP provider. Likewise, the government has added a few more IRPs.

What are the functions of IRP?

The IRP performs the following tasks:

1. Generation of hash/IRN for invoices:

When the invoices have been uploaded without hash, the IRP generates the hash/IRN for that invoice in the prescribed format based on the IRN parameters.

2. De-duplication check:

The IRP conducts a check of the hash/IRN of an invoice for any duplication or repetition by comparing the same with information stored in the Central Depository.

3. Digital Signing of validated invoices:

All the validated invoices are digitally signed by the IRP using the private key of the IRP. This digitally signed JSON is then made available to the supplier.

4. Generation of QR codes in respect of validated invoices:

A QR code is also generated for each invoice by the IRP, along with the digital signature. The taxpayer can use the resulting QR code to verify/print the invoice and have a quick view/access on handheld devices. This feature is handy for tax officers and other stakeholders to verify certain details when they have no/limited access to the internet. The following parameters will be available through the QR code:

• GSTIN of supplier
• GSTIN of recipient
• Invoice number as given by the supplier
• Date of generation of invoice
• Invoice value (taxable value and gross tax)
• Number of line items
• HSN Code of the main item (the line item having the highest taxable value)
• Unique Invoice Reference Number (hash)

5. Sending the invoice via e-mail:

The IRP send a validated invoice to the e-mail address of the seller.

6. Offline app:

The IRP will provide an offline app to authenticate the QR code of an invoice offline and view its basic details. The complete details of the invoice would be available only after connecting to the portal.

7. Integration with GST and e-way bill system:

The uploaded invoice details will automatically be shared with the GST system, which will allow for the automatic updating of GSTR-1 (of the seller). Further, the details will also be automatically shared with the e-way bill system wherever required to create an e-way bill even simpler. The e-way bill system would only then require a vehicle number to complete the process of creating an e-way bill.

Time limit to report documents to IRP

There had been no time limit fixed by the GST systems or the GST law to generate e-invoices until 30th April 2023. However from 1st May 2023 onwards*, taxpayers with Annual Aggregate Turnover (AATO) of INR 100 crore or more must generate e-invoices for tax invoices and credit-debit notes within 7 days of invoice/CDN date, else such invoices and CDNs will be considered non-compliant. 

There is no defined time limit or period within which e invoice must be generated for the rest of the applicable taxpayers. Therefore, such taxpayers are advised to create e invoice on or after the invoice/CDN date preferably a week before the filing of GSTR-1 returns since it takes T+3 days for details of e-invoices to get auto-populated into GSTR-1.

*However, the department has deferred the time limit of 7 days to report the old e-invoices on the IRP portals by three months. Further, it is yet to announce the new implementation date.

e-Invoice generation on IRP

e-Invoicing ensures that a particular standard or format is followed for the electronic reporting of invoice details. GST taxpayers must follow a prescribed format that helps the system read the output generated by another system (inter-system readability). Therefore, if the details of the invoices are reported as per the prescribed format, it will result in a major improvement in automating the process of filing returns.

Thus, it can be concluded that the purpose of the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) is not to generate invoices online but only to register the details of the invoices generated by the entity on a day-to-day basis. The invoice should be available as a JSON file using an offline tool to upload details of the invoices into the IRP. The ERP must be integrated with the e-invoice system via API, either directly or through GSPs.

Modes of registering invoices with IRP

Multiple modes have been proposed for registering the invoice on the IRP:

1. Web-based through Bulk Upload:
   The applicable taxpayer can enter the details of invoices on an excel-based offline tool that converts the data into a JSON file. The same can be uploaded onto the e-invoice website of the IRP for the purpose of registration/validation of the same. After that, IRN will be generated, along with a QR code.
2. API based:
   The API integration mode will allow big taxpayers and accounting software providers to interact with the Invoice Registration Portal through their own software. For this purpose, server details of their own systems must be registered with the e-invoice system. The IRN can be generated and validated for invoices either one at a time or in bulk, similar to the e-way bill system using the APIs. Prerequisites for integration include an IT-enabled invoice generation system with a static IP address, a pre-production system to test the API interface and SSL based domain name.
3. Mobile App based:
   IRP has proposed a mobile app on the play store or App store, which carries out some functions of the IRP as discussed above. The user must register the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number of the mobile phones through which the IRN needs to be generated on the e-invoice system.
4. GSP based:
   Taxpayers can also utilise the GST Suvidha Provider (GSP) services, such as Clear, to help them carry out their e-invoice-related compliances. Clear’s e-Invoicing solution offers various modes through which e-invoices can be generated by the taxpayers, such as seamless API integrations, Excel mode, FTP, SFTP or Tally connector. The user can enjoy numerous value additions such as:

• Seamless generation of 5,000 e-invoices per minute.
• Integration with a high-fidelity solution with 99.99% uptime.
• 100+ data validations to ensure an error-free smooth e-invoicing experience.
• Auto-retry of failed EWBs (with distance error) to improve the success rate of EWB generation.
• Automatic generation of the e-way bill after IRN generation without any ingestion of data.
• Faster loading of ‘e-invoices’ and ‘e-way bills’ on the screen for as many as 1 lakh documents.
• Reconciliation vis-a-vis e-way bill and GSTR-1 data, insightful reports, customised print template for e-invoice, data archiving, etc. 

Related Articles

e-invoicing under GST – What is e-Invoicing? Applicability & Implementation Date

All about Invoice Reference Number (IRN)

Step-by-Step Process to Generate an e-Invoice and IRN

e-Invoice Registration on IRP – Who should register, Steps for Registration