Penalty for wrong issuance of invoice is overall or per invoice

[Abhijeet Mane]

Whether the penalty for wrong issuance of invoice is 10,000 per invoice or is it overall 10,000 irrespective of number of invoice.

[KASTURI SETHI]

It is per offence.

[Padmanathan KV]

Abhijeet sir,

pls elaborate what is the actual mistake in invoice.

[Abhijeet Mane]

Wrong HSN, however no impact on rate

[KASTURI SETHI]

Mere wrong mention of HSN, especially, in the event of no revenue loss has been caused, is exonerable procedural offence. Although as per GST Rules, penalty is imposable, yet it being a minor offence is ignorable. Practically, the department does not impose penalty in such cases.

[Amit Agrawal]

No penalty, in given facts, due to Section 126 (1) of the CGST Act, 2017.

These are ex facie views of mine and the same should not be construed as professional advice / suggestion.

[Padmanathan KV]

Agreed with the views of the experts. This is not "wrong issuance of invoice" but only a "mistake in the invoice issued". Hence, general penalty can be levied which can be justified under Section 126.

It is assumed that mistake in HSN was clerical error and not misclassification and also that the correct rate of tax is collected and paid. The facts of the case has to be seen holisticaly.

AI Summary

Penalty for invoice errors: per-offence liability, but clerical HSN mistakes without revenue loss are often exonerated. The penalty for an incorrect invoice is imposed per offence, yet whether penalty is actually applied depends on the nature of the error. Clerical mistakes like an incorrect HSN entry that do not cause revenue loss are commonly treated as exonerable procedural breaches and often attract no departmental penalty. By contrast, misclassification or errors causing tax shortfall can justify per-offence penal action under the GST penal provisions, requiring a holistic factual assessment.