Indias GSTN issues e-invoicing draft standard

The standard was drafted in consultation with Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). According to the initial discussions and directions issued by the Government, a supplier will have to generate an Invoice Reference Number (IRN) for each e-invoice issued.

Once the IRN is generated, the system will provide the details of the invoice and IRN number to the pre-notified agency, such as NIC, on a real-time basis. The agency will validate the IRN and issue a digitally signed e-invoice to the supplier. Also, it will then pass the e-invoice details back to GSTN for auto-population of GST returns and generation of e-way bills.

Same invoice details will be visible to the buyers also which will ensure instant verification of input tax credit. It is pertinent to note that only those invoices which carry an IRN number will be considered valid invoices for the tax purposes. Generation of IRN number is an inevitable process in the e-invoicing framework as outlined above. Once e-invoicing mechanism is implemented, one will be required to have 24×7 access to the GSTN portal, which will separate the key GSPs from others.