QR payments deadline pushed

NEW DELHI: Businesses having a turnover of ₹500 crore or more have been given a four-month window until March 31, 2021 to implement QR code-based digital payment system without attracting penalty, which is a move to promote digital India and to check rampant misuse of fake invoices to misappropriate input tax credit under the GST regime, two officials said.

The government has also instructed tax officials to verify deemed GST registrations granted to business entities without Aadhaar authentication between August 21 and November 16 this year to ascertain that they are undertaking genuine business activities and not using these firms to generate fake invoices, the officials said.

The decisions have been taken at a high-level meeting in the Department of Revenue (DoR) recently, an arm of the Union finance ministry that administers matters related to direct and indirect taxes.

“It was decided to give a onetime waiver on penalty provisions for four months period till March 31, 2021 on the condition that the stakeholders would set up necessary process during this period to go-live with QR code on invoices by April 1, 2021, thereby enabling GST on UPI,” one of the officials said.

In order to create a less-cash society, on March 21, 2020, the government mandated issuance of invoices with dynamic QR code by registered business entities with turnover exceeding ₹500 crore.