The Indian GST Council has announced amendments to the existing GST legislation framework. Starting the 1st of October 2020, the Indian government will enforce an invoice reporting mandate for businesses with an annual turnover above INR 500 Crores (Approx.$67M), for all their B2B, B2G and Export transactions. These introduce the principle that an invoice is only considered valid if it contains an Invoice Reference Number (IRN) and QR code.

The sellers impacted by the new compliance rule will need to opt-in for Indian tax clearance and are required to first register with the Indian GST and receive a GSTIN number.

Furthermore, production API credentials must be obtained, which are needed for authentication purposes via registration on the e-invoicing portal. This registration can only be done with a valid GSTIN number.

The following steps need to be taken in order to register correctly:

• The Supplier should go to the e-invoicing portal and click on the “registration” button.

Note: if you already have login credentials for the e-waybill portal, these can also be used for the e-invoicing portal.

• The e-invoice registration form, where the GSTIN must be entered, will be visible.
• Next, the applicant details must be filled in, including a name, mobile phone number and email ID. These details must match with the earlier registered details for obtaining the GSTIN.
• You can verify the details by clicking on “Send OTP” and a one time password will be sent to the registered mobile number.
• Fill in the one time password and click on the “Verify OTP button”.
• After successful verification, you can enter a username and password by choice. You can now log in to the system.
• After logging in you should navigate to “API Registration” and select “Create API User” under “User Credentials”. Next select the option “Through GSP”.
• Finally, select “IRIS Business Services Ltd.” and enter the username and password. Click on “Submit”.