e-invoicing under GST may be made mandatory in future, says GSTN CEO Prakash Kumar

GSTN CEO Prakash Kumar on Thursday said that e-invoicing under GST will remain on a voluntary basis initially, however, it could be made mandatory in future if the council feels the need of doing so.

“The council has given us the date of January 1st to deploy it on voluntary basis; the way we have done for e-way bill — it will be on a voluntary basis for some time and after that, it will be made mandatory whenever the council thinks of," said Kumar in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

The goods and services tax (GST) collection has remained subdued in October as well. GST mop-up, according to sources, stands at Rs 93,000 crore, significantly lower than Rs 1 lakh crore in October 2018.

“The applications which were filed were around 3.5 crore and 1,500 have already been issued; the sanctions and refund have already taken place,” said Kumar.

“If there is deficiency, it is returned back and the taxpayer is supposed to add those papers and that is treated as a fresh application," added Kumar.

On simplification front, Kumar said, “The most important one is the new return which will be launched on April 1. In fact, we have already launched the offline tool which is available also in the online version which people have already started using.”

“The advantage is that once they use it, they will be familiar with the new system which is different from what we have today,” added Kumar.

He further said that automation will help bring the burden down.