After reviewing the technical issues, including IT network or GSTN portal, the all-powerful Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Saturday decided to implement the e-way bill mechanism throughout the country by June 1, while traders and transporters can start using this system on a voluntary basis from January 16.
Now, the transporters to carry an electronic waybill or e-way bill when moving goods from one place to another, will be required to register as per the GST provisions.
“As per the schedule of implementation, the nationwide e-way bill system will be ready to be rolled out on a trial basis latest by January 16, 2018. Traders and transporters can start using this system on a voluntary basis from January 16,” the Finance Ministry statement said here, adding that subsequently, the rules for implementation of nationwide e-way bill system for inter-state movement of goods on a compulsory basis will be notified with effect from February 1, 2018.
“The all-powerful GST Council decided to implement the e-way bill mechanism throughout the country by June 1 after reviewing the IT network readiness,” it said.
After the new e-way bill provision, the pre-GST era would be a passé. Under the GST regime, the waybill is replaced by an e-way bill which aims at mitigating the problems caused by waybill compliance. In the pre-GST era, supply of goods happened only after obtaining these waybills from VAT authorities. A waybill is a physical document that allows movement of goods, where compliance of waybills was an issue.
E-way bill is an electronic way bill for movement of goods which can be generated on the GSTN portal. Movement of goods of more than Rs 50,000 in value cannot be done by a registered person without an e-way bill. When an e-way bill is generated, a unique e-way bill number (EBN) is allocated and is available to the supplier, recipient, and the transporter.
The 24th meeting of the GST Council, which was held on Saturday through video conferencing under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, discussed the implementation of the e-way bill system in the country. “Till such time as the national e-way Bill is ready, the states were authorised to continue their own separate e-way Bill systems,” the statement said.
However, it was represented by the trade and transporters that this is causing undue hardship in the inter-state movement of goods and therefore, bringing in an early all-India system of e-way bill has become a necessity. This will bring uniformity across the states for seamless inter-state movement of goods, it said.
The e-way bill mechanism has been introduced in the GST regime to plug tax evasion loopholes. Tax evasion was one of the reasons cited by the Government for the fall in revenue collection in October.
The GST revenue for October stood at Rs 83,346 crore, the lowest since the implementation of the new indirect tax regime from July 1. It was significantly lower than the September figure of Rs 95,131 crore.