The GST Council approved the Schema (Standard technical specifications) of an Electronic Invoice in its 37^th meeting, held on September 20, 2019. On December 13, 2019 and January 1, 2020, the Central Government issued various Notifications to align GST law on this aspect. Recently, the Government has launched E-Invoice API Developer’s Portal, accessible at https://einv-apisandbox.nic.in where E-Invoice APIs will be released for smooth integration of ERP and ASP software with Government portal (‘Invoice Registration Portal’ / ‘IRP’).

As on date, the following documents are available in public domain on this subject:

Notification No. 68/2019 to 72/2019-Central Tax dated December 13, 2019 and Notification No. 2/2020-Central Tax dated January 1, 2020

• Schema and Template

• Concept Note including FAQs (‘Old FAQs’) 

• Additional and updated FAQs on E-Invoice concept, flow and schema (‘New FAQs’) 

• List of APIs 

Notably, neither the API specification details of IRP have been released by the Government, nor the notified E-Invoicing portals are functional as on date.

In the enclosed booklet, we have tried to capture all the relevant information available in public domain in respect of E-Invoicing along with NITYA’s take on the same.

NITYA’s Insight I Issue 84 I E-Invoicing – A Taxation and Business reform