Four months respite from penalty on GST invoices without QR code

By Shailesh Yadav
New Delhi [India], November 30 (ANI): The government has conditionally waived the penalty provisions for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions for a period of four months from December 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, for issuing invoices without mandatory dynamic QR code by the registered persons with a turnover exceeding Rs 500 crores, said sources in the Department of Revenue (DoR), Ministry of Finance.
DoR sources said the government has been pursuing the banks, vendors and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for almost a year now to introduce Goods and Services Tax (GST) enablement on Unified Payment Interface (UPI). Multiple meetings were conducted by the DoR with NPCI, top banks and other stakeholders to push the project. The NPCI developed the necessary solution required and shared technical documents with the banks.
Also, the NPCI was ready for the bank certification from February 6, 2020, and targeted for GST enablement on UPI to go-live from the first week of March 2020.
Sources said the government, also, in pursuance of its objective to create a less-cash society, mandated issuance of invoices with dynamic QR code by registered persons (business entities) with turnover exceeding Rs 500 crores, vide its Notification 14/2020 dated March 21, 2020, to enable GST on UPI which was to be effective from December 1, 2020, in respect of invoices issued to unregistered persons (customers).
A penalty provision was also invoked for issuance of invoices without dynamic QR code from December 1, 2020. However, the majority of the banks lagged behind in their preparedness for enablement of GST on UPI despite multiple meetings, persuasions and necessary support from NPCI.
According to the Sources, recently in a high-level review meeting at North Block on GST enablement on UPI, it was decided to give a one-time waiver on penalty provisions for four months period till March 31, 2021, on the condition that the stakeholders would set up necessary process during this period to go-live with QR code on invoices by April 1, 2021, thereby enabling GST on UPI.
Thus, the government, according to the sources, decided to extend certain concession and issued notification No. 89/2020- Central Tax, dated November 29, 2020, waiving the penalty for issuing invoices without dynamic QR code from December 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, provided that the taxpayers start complying with the requirement of QR code from April 1, 2021. (ANI)