On March 2, the tax bureau of Beijing has officially declared that it will commence executing blockchain invoicing within the city.

Beijing hopes blockchain invoicing can deliver more transparency to taxpayers.

Beijing intends to bring blockchain’s unprecedented transparency, immutability, and traceability to its future governance with the utilization of blockchain invoicing. The official announcement stated that:

“To reduce taxpayers operating costs, save social resources, increase consumer convenience for saving invoices and build a healthy and fair tax environment […]The tax bureau of Beijing has decided to pilot the application of blockchain electronic general invoice.”

 The Beijing blockchain invoice has distinct characteristics, according to the announcement. There are 12 digits in the invoice code, and there are a total of 8 digits in the invoice number.

The Beijing tax bureau inspires customers to take the initiative to verify the authenticity of the invoices by checking the invoice data on its official website or the authorized Ruihong website. 

It stated that “The information recorded in the common electronic invoices shall be consistent with the results obtained on the website […] Consumers have the right to reject electronic invoices with inconsistent results, and can call the tax service hotline 12366 of the Beijing tax bureau to report.”

The Beijing tax bureau will steadily carry out the blockchain invoicing service promotion everywhere in the city. It will publish general invoices for parking and tickets for scenic spots and parks for now. Other industries will be included in the pilot scope later on.

This is not the first city that is beginning a blockchain invoicing initiative

As reported earlier, over 10 million blockchain-based invoices had been circulated in Chinese tech capital Shenzhen as of the end of last year.

Over 7,600 companies in Shenzhen have utilized the blockchain system. The total value of about 7 billion yuan (nearly $995 million) invoice has progressed on the system.