New e-way Bill System Comes into Force for Smooth Movement of Inter-State Goods

A new e-way bill system has come into effect from 1st February 2018.
Under this new e-way bill system, every transporter will have to carry a system generated bill to move goods from on place to another.

• The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council had earlier deferred the roll-out of the e-way bill in its last meeting on 6th October 2017 due to some concerns related to the functioning of the GST Network portal. 
• But, in the last GST Council meet, it was decided that the bill system would be rolled out and would become mandatory from February 1.
• The e-way bill for intra-state movement of goods will be implemented only from an uniform launch date across all states which most probably would be 1st June 2018.

Purpose of introducing e-way Bill system

• The system was introduced in order to bring in seamless inter-state movement of goods across all the states.
• E-way bill is a mechanism to ensure that goods being transported comply with the GST Law and is an effective tool to track the movement of goods and check tax evasion.

What is an e-way bill?

• E-way bill is an electronic document generated on the GST portal for the movement of goods. Every registered person who causes movement of goods of consignment value more than Rs 50000 is required to furnish the details of GSTIN of recipient, place of delivery, invoice or challan number and date, value of goods, HSN code, transport document number and reasons for transportation and transporter details. E-way bill can be generated by the consignor or consignee himself if the transportation is being done in own/hired conveyance or by railways by air or by Vessel. If the goods are handed over to a transporter for transportation by road, the bill will be generated by the transporter.

Its Features

• The e-way bill system has been introduced to bring uniformity across the states for seamless inter-state movement of goods. 
• Under the Goods and Services Tax, interstate transportation of goods beyond 10 kilometres with a value of 50,000 rupees and above, will mandatorily require the e-way bill. 
• These bills can be generated from the GSTN portal. 
• The e-way bill system is equipped to handle around 50 lakh e-way bills per day, taking into account an estimate of 10 lakh interstate bills and 35-40 intrastate bills per day.
• The software has been developed by the NIC or National Informatics Centre. Therefore while, the GSTN owns the software, it will be run and operated by the NIC.
• No e-way bill is required to be generated in the cases where goods being transported by a non-motorised conveyance, goods being transported from the port, airport, air cargo complex and land customs station to an inland container depot or a container freight station for clearance by Customs and when Consignment value is less than Rs 50,000 among others.
• The validity of e-way bill depends on the distance to be travelled by the goods. For a distance of less than 100 Km the e-way bill will be valid for a day from the relevant date or the date of issuance. For every 100 Km thereafter, the validity will be additional one day from the relevant date.
• Although the validity of the e-way bill cannot be extended, a Commissioner may extend it by way of issue of notification for certain categories of goods. If the goods cannot be transported within the validity of the bill, the transported may generate another bill after updating the details again.