Retailers won't have to issue long invoices detailing prices and taxes for each item under the goods and services tax (GST) regime, further easing the billing and compliance burden on them. They will also not have to issue separate invoices for exempted items taxed at the 0% rate and can club all purchases in one bill.

The GST Council has approved these changes based on the recommendations of the law committee set up to review demands by stakeholders. The two changes will make invoicing and filing easier for retailers. They can issue invoices clubbing all goods taxed at one rate and mention just the total tax, facilitating smaller and less cumbersome invoices.

Under the earlier arrangement, all items had to be mentioned separately along with their prices and taxes. Retailers had argued that the end-customer is concerned with the net sale price and didn't need a detailed tax breakup, but this was rejected by the committee. It said buyers have a right to know the tax being levied on all goods and services purchased by them.

A supplier need not provide the rate of tax against each item in the invoice and can instead show the cumulative value of all items liable to tax at a particular rate and the total levied on them. This will allow for clubbing of items and simpler invoices.

The GST law provides that a retailer selling both regular and exempt items has to provide two separate receipts — one for each. If a consumer buys grocery items taxed at 0% and consumer goods taxed at 18%, then the retailer will need to issue two separate invoices.

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Under the new rules, the retailer will be allowed to issue one single 'invoice-cum-bill of supply' for all the goods sold to a consumer or unregistered entity. Tax experts said the move is in the right direction.
"Allowing aggregate level-value on the invoice, based on GST rate, would be a significant relief for B2C (business to consumer) supplies by retailers. It would be good if the requirement of mentioning harmonised system of nomenclature (HSN) code is also dispensed with in such cases," said Pratik Jain, indirect tax leader, PwC.