GST: Government lowers threshold for e-invoicing to Rs 5 crore

It will be mandatory for smaller businesses to carry business transactions via e-invoices from August 1, 2023.

The Union government has notified lowering of the threshold for e-invoicing from Rs 10 crore to Rs 5 crore following which it will be mandatory for smaller businesses to carry business transactions via e-invoices from August 1, 2023.

In exercise of the powers of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, the government, on the recommendations of the Council, made the amendment in the notification.

"In the said notification, with effect from the 1st day of August, 2023, for ten crore rupees, five crore rupees shall be substituted," it said.

Phased implementation of e-invoicing has resulted in multiple benefits for the entire tax ecosystem which includes improved compliance and increased collections, Rajat Mohan, Senior Partner, AMRG & Associates, told Moneycontrol.

“Lowering of e-invoicing threshold would extend the digital application to MSME sector and would benefit the overall business ecosystem by reducing costs, rationalising errors and faster invoice processing in the long term,” he said.

Under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law, e-invoicing for business-to-business (B2B) transactions was made mandatory for companies with turnover of over Rs 500 crore from October 1, 2020, which was then extended to those with turnover of over Rs 100 crore effective January 1, 2021.

From April 1, 2021, companies with turnover of over Rs 50 crore were generating B2B e-invoices, and the threshold was brought down to Rs 20 crore beginning April 1, 2022. From October 1, 2022, the threshold was further lowered to Rs 10 crore.