February 22, 2021

Auto-population of e-invoice in GSTR-1

Generation of electronic invoices has been made mandatory for all taxpayers having aggregate turnover of more than 100 Crores during the preceding financial year.

With effect from 1-10-2020, certain notified taxpayers started issuing invoices after obtaining Invoice Reference Number (IRN) from Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) (commonly referred as ‘e-invoices’). From 1-1-2021, the taxpayers with aggregate turnover above ₹ 100 Cr. during preceding Financial Year also started generating invoice IRN from IRP portal.

1. Manner of Auto-population of e-invoice

As per Advisory issued by CBIC, details of e-invoices shall auto-populate in GSTR-1 in following manner:

Upon generation of e-invoice, details of such invoice shall start auto-populating in respective table of GSTR-1 of the supplier.
Auto-populated details can be downloaded in excel file through clicking on “Download details from e-invoices (Excel)” tab available in GSTR-1.
In case GSTR-1 for corresponding period is already filed then details of e-invoices can be downloaded in excel.
Please note that the auto-populated details in this excel file are as reported on e-invoice portal Invoice Registration Portal (IRP). So, any subsequent modifications made to the auto-populated documents (in GSTR-1 tables) would not be reflected in this excel file.
Details of invoices will auto-populate based on document date i.e., If the document is dated 31st January, 2021 and IRN is generated on 2nd February, 2021 then such invoice will appear in GSTR-1 of January, 2021.
Following details shall auto-populate in following tabs of GSTR-1:

Type of supplies	Auto-populated in GSTR-1 Table
Taxable outward supplies made to registered persons (other than reverse charge)	Table 4A of GSTR-1- Supplies other than those (i) attracting reverse charge and (ii) supplies made through e-commerce operator
Taxable outward supplies made to registered persons attracting reverse charge	Table 4B – Supplies attracting tax on reverse charge basis
Export supplies	Table-6-Exports
Credit or debit notes issued to registered persons	Table 9B – Credit or debit notes (Registered)
Credit or debit notes issued to unregistered persons	Table 9B – Credit or debit notes (Unregistered) – with UR type as Exports with payment and without payment of tax

If any invoice contains multiple items, then for the purpose of auto-population of data in GSTR-1, information shall aggregate at rate level.

E.g., If an Invoice contains Item A (GST rate-5%) of INR 100, Item B (GST Rate-12%) of INR 150 and Item C (GST Rate-5%) of INR 200 then in GSTR-1, Turnover under GST Rate of 5% will appear INR 300 and turnover under Rate 12% will appear of INR 100.

Following additional information shall also appear in GSTR-1:
- Source (e-invoice)
- Invoice Reference Number (IRN)
- Invoice Reference Number Date (IRN Date)
In case of cancellation of IRN, shall document shall get deleted from GSTR-1.
Details of e-invoices auto-populating in GSTR-1 can be edited/deleted by the taxpayer. However, in such cases, the ‘Source’, ‘IRN’ and ‘IRN date’ fields will be reset to blank in respective tables of GSTR-1. Such edited documents will be treated as if they were not auto-populated but uploaded separately by the taxpayer.
Before filing GSTR-1, taxpayers should review the details of e-invoices auto-populated in specified tables:
- By viewing them online on GST Portal, or
- By downloading the JSON from GST Portal, or
- By using APIs via GSP
Taxpayers should modify/update only those documents where the details auto-populated from e-invoices are not as per the actual invoice issued.
Supplies not auto-populating in GSTR-1 should be added manually by the supplier.
‘e-invoice download history’ tab can be used to view the list of the last five downloaded files.
The excel file downloaded from GSTR-1 dashboard page will have details of all the e-invoices received from Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) including cancelled invoices.
Following additional information relating to such e-invoices will also be available:
- Invoice Reference Number (IRN) – 64 string hash
- Date of Invoice Reference Number (IRN date)
- e-invoice Status – Valid/ Cancelled
- Date of auto-population/ deletion (in case of canceled IRN) will be the date when the e-invoice details are auto-populated in GSTR-1 or when the IRN was cancelled. Any subsequent modifications made to the auto-populated documents (in GSTR-1 tables) would not be reflected in this excel file.
- GSTR-1 auto-population / deletion status (either of the following):
  - Auto-populated,
  - Deleted,
  - Auto-population failed,
  - Deletion failed
- Error in auto-population/ deletion – Error description, if any

2. Date of reflection of Invoices in GSTR-1

Data in GSTR-1 appears on a T+3 basis, i.eTransaction date plus 3 days. Therefore, if data is updated on 1st January, 2021 then it will reflect in GSTR-1 from 4th January, 2021.

3. Error in auto-generation of GSTR-1 of December, 2020

As per complaints received from taxpayers, GSTN observed that while pulling the e-invoice data for the month of December, 2020 into GSTR-1, details of some invoices were not populated into GSTR-1. GSTN is working on priority to rectify such inadvertent gaps and details of those invoices will be pushed to GSTR-1 shortly.

However, GSTN has advised taxpayers that they should not wait for the same and should proceed with preparation and filing of GSTR-1 for the month of December, 2020 (before the due date), based on actual data as per their records.

As advised earlier, the taxpayers may modify/delete only those documents where the details auto-populated from e-invoices are not as per the actual documents issued.

Further, the details of e-invoices auto-populated in GSTR-1 can be edited/deleted by the taxpayer. However, in such cases, the ‘Source’, ‘IRN’ and ‘IRN date’ fields will be reset to blank in respective tables of GSTR-1 and accordingly won’t get reflected in corresponding GSTR-2A/2B/4A/6A. Such edited documents will be treated as if they were not auto-populated but uploaded separately by taxpayer.

Other than the details auto-populated from e-invoices, taxpayers can add invoices not appearing in GSTR-1 in respective tables of GSTR-1.

An additional facility of consolidated excel download of all documents auto-populated from e-invoices is available in GSTR-1 dashboard. This file includes details of cancelled documents also.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are strictly of the author and VJM & Associates LLP. The contents of this article are solely for informational purpose. It does not constitute professional advice or recommendation of firm. Neither the author nor firm and its affiliates accepts any liabilities for any loss or damage of any kind arising out of any information in this article nor for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

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16/05/2022 No Comments