The Goods and Service Tax Council has made it mandatory for businesses with an annual turnover of over ₹ 5 crore to move to e-invoicing from next year. 

Such businesses will have to generate electronic invoices for business-to-business (B2B) transactions starting January 1, 2023, reported the Economic Times quoting a government official familiar with the matter. 

Earlier, businesses having turnover of ₹ 20 crore and above were required to generate e-invoices for all B2B transactions.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had reduced the e-invoice threshold to ₹ 10 crore or more. Now, it has been further lowered to ₹ 5 crore.

The GST Council had earlier decided to implement e-invoicing in a phased manner. 

The recent move to lower the annual turnover limit for e-invoicing to ₹ 5 crore is aimed at eventually bringing all businesses with over ₹ 1 crore turnover under the framework.This will help bring small businesses under the formal economy, plug revenue leakages, and ensure compliance, the government official told ET.

The government rolled out the e-invoicing system on October 1, 2020. Initially, companies with turnover of over ₹ 500 crore were required to generate e-invoices as per the Goods and Services Tax (GST) guidelines.

It was then extended to include businesses with over ₹ 100 crore annual turnover from January 1, 2021, and then to companies with more than ₹ 50 crore turnover from April last year.