IRIS GST TIMES

The Government is releasing a bunch of new updates every other day for businesses. Practices like E-invoicing and E-way Bill have transformed the entire scenario and are on their way to rooting out the old way of doing business. Digitization is the way to go as it not only eases the entire process but brings in a lot more transparency.

Here are the latest updates in the E-way Bill System:

• Validity of E-way bill: The validity of e-way bills for cases other than over-dimensional cargo will be calculated based on a distance of 200 km and not 100 km from 1st January 2021 onwards.
• GSTIN Status: The recipient’s GSTIN should be registered and active, on the date of preparation of the document by the supplier.
• Documentation for E-way Bill System: Document numbers are case sensitive for E-way bill generation.
• Distance Validation: If the Pin-to-Pin distance is known then allowed distance for transportation is between +/- 10 % of auto-calculated PIN-PIN distance. If the auto-calculated distance is less than 100 KMs, then the allowed distance for transportation should be between 1 and +10 % of auto-calculated PIN-PIN distance.
• Pin-to-Pin distance: In the case of Bulk Upload, if the Pin-to-Pin distance is not known, the distance may be passed as zero. If available, the E-way bill system will automatically populate the distance. However, if the distance is not available then the error is returned. For such cases, the user has to pass the distance.
• Pin code: If the required Pin code does not exist in the E-way Bill system then atleast the first 3 digits of the pin code must match with the selected state.
• E-way Bill from E-invoice System: If the E-way Bill is generated from the E-invoice System, then IRN is displayed on the E-way Bill print.
• Bulk Upload: In Bulk upload, 96 can also be passed as state code for ‘Other Country’.
• Update on Blocking of E-Way Bill generation facility after 1st December 2020: Rule 138E (a) and (b) of the CGST Rules – 2017 states: The E-Way Bill (EWB) generation facility of a taxpayer can be restricted if the taxpayer fails to file their GSTR-3B returns or Statement in GST CMP-08, for two or more tax periods.

The blocking of the EWB generation facility in E-way bill system would be made applicable to all the taxpayers (irrespective of their Aggregate Annual Turnover (AATO)

• EWB blocking for transporters in light of E-invoicing: IRN can be generated only by the Supplier or e-commerce operator on behalf of the supplier. Hence access to the IRP system is only for suppliers or e-commerce operators and not transporters.

Read the full article here: New Updates in EWB system you need to be aware of!

Important GST Notifications released in December 2020

• GST Notification 94/2020-Central Tax, date. 22-12-2020
• GST Notification 93/2020-Central Tax, date. 22-12-2020
• GST Notification 92/2020-Central Tax, date. 22-12-2020
• GST Notification 90/2020-Central Tax, date. 01-12-2020

This year 2020 has been an action-packed year for IRIS GST too. Key highlights of what we did in 2020:

1. One-stop-shop for all GST compliances: In the beginning it was GST, then, came e-way bill and now e-invoicing. The compliances have not just increased but also converged. Hence, it is quite natural for the products to also evolve in a similar manner. All compliances under one roof and accessible using single sign-in have been the core theme for us this year. Considering the inter-dependencies between various compliances and enabling a smooth transition for our users, the integrated modules were released in a staggered manner. We started with combining e-invoicing and e-way bill operations as these are more closely related and are transactional and now we are moving to integrating the GST Returns.

2. Complete solution for e-invoicing: IRIS Onyx, as we have named it, can be used to manage the complete lifecycle for e-invoice. The integrated offering further helps to accomplish the subsequent tasks of e-way bill management and GST compliances. Preparing an E-invoice is the starting point of compliance.  Once an invoice (or now an e-invoice) is generated, the goods can be shipped and the invoice can be reported in GST returns.

So, while the Government has defined about 140 data points to be collected for e-invoicing, we did not limit ourselves just to it. We have defined our input format (format for collecting data points from ERPs) to collect data for e-invoice, e-way bill and GST return simultaneously.

3. More utilities to make your ITC computations easier: Towards the end of Nov 2019 cap on ITC reduced from 20% to 10 % and this December we saw the limit being further reduced to 5%. Last year, we added options to keep month-wise track of ITC taken on a provisional basis and a summarized view of ITC eligible based on conditions such as filing status of the vendor, reverse charge etc.

4. Assisting transporters for uninterrupted movement even during Covid times: For Topaz users-our e-way bill solution for taxpayers (primarily consigners), the main activity was integrating the workflow along with e-invoicing generation.

5. A giant leap for Peridot: It’s been a super exciting year for Peridot, one of the most popular apps for verifying GSTIN. And now, the latest version of Peridot, can do a lot more. The latest version Peridot 4, is available on Google Playstore.

Read the full article in detail here: Year 2020 in recap for IRIS GST