Shenzhen’s metro, taxis, and airport trains are now integrated with an electronic invoicing blockchain built by Tencent and available within the WeChat app, the tech giant revealed.
This means passengers who use WeChat to pay for rides and file invoices, will now see their reimbursement claims processed via blockchain.
The e-invoicing blockchain connects passengers’ invoice records with their company and the Shenzhen Municipal Taxation Bureau in real-time. Users can also check the progress of their reimbursements and receive the funds online through WeChat.
Shenzhen became China’s first pilot city for blockchain last summer, in a partnership between the tech hub’s tax bureau and Tencent.
Beginning with a handful of restaurants and coffee shops in August 2018, the blockchain e-invoicing system has since rolled out to more than 1,000 merchants, with the number of invoices surpassing one million, and totaling more than RMB 1.33 million (US$189,000).
Aside from saving on paper costs — the Shenzhen Metro prints approximately 160,000 receipts a day, Tencent says — blockchain e-invoicing could reap significant efficiency gains by reducing fraudulent and duplicate invoicing, as well as transactions costs among employees, enterprises and the tax bureau, all while providing advanced encryption, privacy, the integrity of the data.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad