E-Invoice to be launched from January next year : GSTN CEO Prakash Kumar

e-Invoice is a major initiative of the Department of Revenue (DoR), Government of India, to standardize B2B transaction exchange.

Speaking at the interactive session on e-invoice organised by The Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI) here, Mr Kumar said e-invoice reduce costs; facilitate automation; shorten payment cycles; improve account reconciliation; enhance compliance; prevent errors, losses and frauds; improve supplier/customer relationship and reduce the carbon footprint.

The DoR has embarked upon a country wide publicity campaign to garner participation of industry bodies and software development companies, a crucial ingredient to the launch and success of the e-invoice scheme.

As part of this exercise, Goods and Services Tax Network (‘GSTN’) has initiated an outreach in association with Trade bodies to engage with software development and product development companies in the accounting and billing space -- invoicing and billing software, solution providers for GST, GSPs, ASPs, to showcase the contours of the E Invoice initiative, and to discuss and the e-invoice standards which would enable businesses to communicate their business transactions in a seamless digital mode and also report this to a common Invoice Registration Portal (IRP).

The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is a not-for-profit, non-government company promoted jointly by the Central and State Governments, which will provide shared IT infrastructure and services to both central and state governments including tax payers and other stakeholders.

The front-end services of Registration, Returns, Payments, to all taxpayers will be provided by GSTN. It will be the interface between the government and the taxpayers, he added.