Swedish public sector to possibly receive e-invoices only

According to the source, the Government has therefore made the decision to commission the Swedish Financial Management Authority (ESV) to analyse the consequences of such a requirement and if so, how this would work on a practical level.

The commission is partly connected to the fact that an EU-directive for e-invoice in public procurement will be implemented in Swedish legislation by the year 2018 at the latest. The content of the directive is how the public sector should be able to receive and manage e-invoices in any of the formats that are included in the future European standard. The suggestion to enable suppliers solely to send electronic invoices to the public sector would be to take the directive one step further. In Denmark and Norway bans on paper invoices already exist and Spain is also ready to introduce similar bans.

The commission to ESV focuses on analysing suggestions on how the above could be actualised and implemented and also what sorts of measures are deemed necessary for a successful implementation. ESV will not only analyse the benefits and effectiveness that e-invoice invariably will lead to, but will also investigate the environmental aspects. ESV will analyse the consequences for various types of businesses and companies and take into consideration if the competitiveness in public procurement in any way could be affected by such a directive.

The commission is to be reported to the Government by May 31, 2015 at the latest. ESV will enable both the Central Government Authorities and the business sector to give their points of view as input during the process.