Malaysia is on track in implementing PINT e-Invoicing, joining regional leaders like Singapore, Japan, and Australia.

This is a positive step for Malaysia, as its top ten export markets between January and October 2024 include Singapore and Japan. 

In this period, Singapore led as the largest export market, contributing RM190.3 billion (15.3% of total exports), and ranked second for imports at RM138.1 billion (12.1% of total imports).

Japan, another key trade partner in this period, ranked fifth for exports at RM69.1 billion (5.6% of total exports), and also fifth for imports at RM59.5 billion (5.2% of total imports).

Meanwhile, Australia, while not consistently in the top ten export markets, reached the tenth position in October 2024 recently for both exports and imports with RM4.2 billion and RM2.8 billion respectively.

A Path Towards Global e-Invoicing

Clement Loh, CEO of Finexus Group, remarked, "Malaysia’s adoption of ‘Peppol International Invoice’ (PINT) will position our country alongside regional leaders like Singapore, Japan, and Australia. 

“This development is significant, as we can observed a positive trade balance of RM52.2 billion from Singapore and RM9.6 billion from Japan, between January and October 2024. Australia also recently contributed a positive trade balance of RM1.4 billion in October 2024 alone.”

Loh added, “Hence, with PINT e-Invoicing being adopted by these regional leaders, we believe Malaysia’s adoption of PINT will advance Malaysia’s economy, and benefit our AREMA e-Invoicing customers in streamlining their cross-border trade and advance towards true globalisation.”

Finexus offers a comprehensive range of e-Invoicing solutions, including middleware, web portal for MSME, and retail systems that generate e-Invoicing QR receipts.

What is Peppol?

Peppol is a set of document specifications that standardises the format of business documents, such as e-Invoices. This enables businesses across different countries to exchange documents in a commonly understood, standardised format.

These documents are transmitted securely via the open Peppol network. Only Peppol-accredited service providers like Finexus can access this network. These providers act as intermediaries, facilitating the exchange of e-Invoices between sellers and buyers within the same country or in different countries.

Peppol is created by OpenPeppol, a non-profit organisation based in Belgium that provide the document specifications and governance for Peppol. Any organisation can join OpenPeppol.

It is also interesting to note that an e-Invoicing provider’s interface with LHDN and Peppol are entirely separate processes. LHDN-approved e-Invoicing providers may not be Peppol-certified, and vice versa. Finexus, however, is independently accredited by both LHDN and OpenPeppol as official providers.

What is PINT?

PINT or “Peppol International Invoice” is a set of e-Invoice specifications built on the existing Peppol BIS Billing 3.0. 

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0. is a set of e-Invoice specifications that are compliant with the EN 16931. EN 16931 is an European standard for e-Invoicing used currently by the 27 countries in the European Union.

In other words, e-Invoices that follow PINT document specifications can be sent to all European countries, as these PINT e-Invoices comply with EN 16931.

However, what makes PINT different from Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.? While PINT complies with the EN 16931 European standard, it also provides the structure to include legislations and tax laws of different countries in the e-Invoice.

What is MY PINT?

Hence, to localise the global specifications of PINT for Malaysian businesses to use, MDEC which functions as the Peppol Authority for Malaysia, created MY PINT or “Malaysia Peppol International Invoice”.

MY PINT ensures alignment with global e-Invoicing standards of PINT, while complying with the Malaysian regulations and tax laws. For example, in MY PINT, VAT or “Value-added Tax” is adapted to Malaysia’s SST and TTx or “Sales and Service Tax, and Tourism Tax”.

This localisation enables Malaysian businesses to exchange e-Invoices seamlessly with businesses in Singapore, Japan, and Australia, while ensuring compliance with local laws.

MY PINT currently supports both invoices and credit notes for billing and self-billing.

One of the key features is  MY PINT e-Invoice will show an alphanumeric Peppol ID for global identification:

• First 4 digits: Indicate Malaysian entities (i.e., “0230”).

• Next 2 digits: Indicate entity types (e.g., "01" for companies with new SSM numbers, "02" for Sabah enterprises, "03" for Sarawak enterprises, etc.).

• Last 12 alphanumeric characters: Indicate entity’s registration number.

How Does MY PINT Work?

As an illustration, suppose a Malaysian supplier wants to send an e-Invoice to a Singaporean customer. 

The Malaysian supplier can do so through their chosen Peppol-accredited service provider such as Finexus, as an example, with steps below:

1. Submission to IRBM: As a Peppol-accredited service provider, Finexus extracts the tax information required by Malaysia’s Inland Revenue Board (IRBM) from the e-Invoice sent by the supplier and submits to IRBM for validation.

2. Validation and Combination: Once validated by IRBM, Finexus combines the IRBM’s validated e-Invoice (for tax reporting purposes) with the original commercial e-Invoice.

3. Transmission to IRAS: Finexus then transmits the combined e-Invoice to the Singapore customer via his or her chosen Peppol-accredited service provider. The receiving service provider will then send the e-Invoice data to Singapore's Inland Revenue Authority (IRAS), akin to our LHDN.

This process ensures compliance with both Malaysian and Singaporean regulations and tax laws while maintaining seamless cross-border invoicing.

For more information about Finexus’ AREMA e-Invoicing solutions, visit Finexus AREMA.

This content is provided by Finexus Sdn Bhd.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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