In the 54th GST Council Meeting on 9th September 2024 the Finance Minister acknowledged the enhancements to the existing GST return architecture. As stated in the advisory issued on 3rd September, the recipient taxpayers, for the purpose of availing Input Tax Credit (ITC), will be provided options to either accept, reject, or keep the invoice pending. Though, as of the moment, the facility stands optional, this process is expected to reduce errors, improve reconciliation, and reduce notices issued on account of ITC mismatch in the returns.*
What is the Invoice Management System (IMS) Under GST?
It is a new feature within the GST portal that will allow recipient taxpayers to accept, reject, or keep invoices filed by their supplier taxpayers pending.
Date of Implementation of Invoice Management System Under GST
It is optional at the moment, but it may soon become mandatory. However, the actions taken by your registered recipient will have an impact on your GST returns. So, it is advisable to madatorily track the same.
How does the IMS work?
It acts as an intermediary between supplier’s GSTR-1 and recipient’s GSTR-2B. This means that whenever supplier saves invoices on his dashboard or files GSTR-1, the data first goes to recipient’s IMS dashboard. Based upon recipient’s actions, the data then flows to GSTR-2B.
So, does it mean that we do not have to wait till 14th of next month for GSTR-2B to be generated and we can take actions well in time to ensure timely filing?
Yes. As and when the suppliers save data on their GST portal, it gets reflected on your IMS dashboard helping you to start the reconciliation on a real time basis.
As this IMS facility is optional can we continue filing our GSTR-3B returns as per our existing procedure?
For the data uploaded by supplier’s, recipient can continue filing GSTR-3B as per their existing procedure and can accept, postpone or block ITC as per the existing GSTR-3B format.
What about the actions taken by my registered recipient? will it impact my GST-3B?
Yes. The actions taken by your registered recipient need to be tracked by you as, if they reject any invoice or debit or credit note, it may effect your GSTR-3B automatically.
To summarise, if I am a retailer having only B2C transactions and a few B2B transactions, it is enough to track the actions taken by my registered recipients ?
As of now, yes.
Following are the Advisory / FAQ issued by GSTN on IMS
