India extends B2B e-invoices to all businesses April 2021

Following the 1 October 2020 introduction of mandatory electronic invoices for larger businesses on B2B transactions, India intends to extend the obligation to medium sized companies in January 2021, and then all businesses from 1 April 2021.

The e-invoice implementation timetable is as follows:

• 1 October 2020: annual sales threshold for the obligation is Rs 500 Crore
• 1 January 2021: annual sales threshold for the obligation is Rs 100 Crore
• 1 April 2021: all businesses

India also plans to replace the e-way bill platform with the Invoice Registration Portal, used for e-invoices.

The Indian e-invoicing system can also eventually dispense with the present system of filing GST returns for smaller businesses and MSMEs because e-invoice will pre- populate their returns and they have to simply pay the taxes. The returns will be automatically generated for all supplies for which e-invoice have been issued.