Beijing Pilots Blockchain-based Invoicing

Beijing, China’s capital, has started piloting blockchain-based electronic invoicing in an attempt to reduce costs, Beijing Municipal Tax Service announced.

A parking service operator already issued the municipality’s first blockchain invoice on Tuesday. Now in Beijing, all parking lots have opted-in to go paperless, as the municipality aims to “reduce operating costs, save resources, allow consumers to keep invoices more conveniently, and create a healthy and fair environment.

The tax office will promote the adoption of the blockchain invoicing throughout the municipality. The pilot is starting with parking slips and tickets for scenic attractions but will expand to include other types of business.

The country’s tax authorities have been promoting paperless invoices, not only in the capital. Public services and businesses are slowly resuming back to normalcy as the country continues to fight the coronavirus outbreak. The authorities hope that the blockchain-based system can simplify invoice issuance and solve the paper shortage problem that occurred due to the outbreak.

Also, due to blockchain transparency and immutability, consumers can check and verify the authenticity of the invoices online.

However, Beijing is not the first city to pilot the blockchain invoice system nor the first to issue one.

The first blockchain-based tax invoice was issued in the southern city of Guangzhou in June of 2018.

Shenzhen, the country’s technology hub, was the first to pilot blockchain invoicing for national use. In 2019, the city reportedly issued more than 10 million blockchain-based invoices and the system was used by over 7,600 companies.

Earlier this week, the Shenzhen Tax Bureau, jointly with Tencent Blockchain and WeChat Pay, rolled out an “expedited” version of its blockchain invoice platform.