Penalty for not capturing QR Code in GST Invoice waived till June 30th 2021

The Central Board for Indirect Taxes and Customs has issued a notice extending the waiving of the penalty that was applicable if taxpayers failed to capture the dynamic QR code on a GST invoice. All GST invoices issued between December of 2020 and June of 2021 are required to comply with the requirement of capturing a dynamic QR code in the tax invoice. Non-compliance would lead to a penalty. 

However, the CBIC has extended the waiver until June 30th 2021 giving taxpayers some more time to incorporate and adapt to the new invoicing systems. In November 2020, the CBIC had waived off the penalty for not capturing a QR code on business to customer invoices until March 31st 2021. 

This also means that the printing of a dynamic QR code on the GST invoice will be deferred till June 30th, 2021.

Here is an excerpt from the notification issued by the CBIC. 

“The Board seeks to amend notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), No. 89/2020 – Central Tax, dated the 29th November, 2020. In the first paragraph, for the figures, letters and words, “31st day of March”, the figures, letters and words “30th day of June”, shall be substituted. In the first paragraph, for the figures, letters, and words, “1st day of April”, the figures, letters, and words “1st day of July”, shall be substituted.”

A QR or a Quick Response code is a barcode containing information that is presented in a machine readable format. In a GST invoice or eInvoice, a QR code will furnish the following details -

• GSTIN of the supplier 
• GSTIN of the recipient 
• Invoice number provided by supplier 
• Date of the generation of invoice 
• Invoice value 
• Invoice description in numbers
• HSN Code 
• Invoice Reference Number/Hash