E-Way
Bill System – A Digital Era in Indian Transport Sector
Subroto
Kumar Ghosh, Research
Scholar
University
Department of Commerce & Business Management, Ranchi University, Ranchi.
Mobile: +91
97714 73885, Email: ghosh.com@gmail.com
Dr. Dilip Kumar Sahu, Assistant Professor
Department of Commerce, J. N. College, Dhurwa, Ranchi.
Abstract :
Introduction of Goods and Services Tax
(GST) across India with effect from 1st of July 2017 is a very significant step
in the field of indirect tax reforms in India. For quick and easy movement of
goods across India without any hindrance, all the check posts across the
country are abolished. The GST system provides a provision of e-Way Bill, a
document to be carried by the person in charge of conveyance, generated
electronically from the common portal. To implement the e-Way Bill system, ICT
based solution is required. Hence, as approved by the Goods and Services Tax
(GST) Council, a web based solution has been designed and developed by National
Informatics Centre and it is being rolled out for the use of taxpayers and
transporters.
Keywords: Goods and Services Tax (GST), e-Way Bill,
National Informatics Centre, Average waiting time.
INTRODUCTION :
A waybill is a receipt or a
document issued by a carrier giving details and instructions relating to the
shipment of a consignment of goods and the details include name of consignor,
consignee, the point of origin of the consignment, its destination, and route.
Electronic Way Bill (E-Way Bill) is basically a compliance mechanism wherein by
way of a digital interface the person causing the movement of goods uploads the
relevant information prior to the commencement of movement of goods and
generates e-way bill on the GST portal.
Rule 138 of the CGST Rules, 2017
provides for the e-way bill mechanism and in this context it is important to
note that “information is to be furnished prior to the commencement of
movement of goods” and “is to be issued whether the movement is in
relation to a supply or for reasons other than supply”.
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY :
Ø Explaining the features of the e-Way Bill system.
Ø Activities of various stake holders.
Ø Registering and enrolling for the e-Way Bill system.
Ø Processes involved in generation of web based e-Way
Bill.
Ø Enabling the various modes of the e-Way Bill
generation.
Ø Managing the sub-users by the stake holders.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study is based on secondary data.
The required data has been collected from various sources i.e. research papers,
various Bulletins of Government of India, Publications from Ministry of Road
Transport, CENTRAL BOARD OF EXCISE
& CUSTOMS Govt. of India that are available on internet.
Objectives
of e-Way Bill
Ø Single e-Way Bill for movement of the goods throughout
the country.
Ø To prevent the evasion of tax.
Ø Hassle free movement of goods across India.
Ø Tracking the movement of goods with e-Way Bill number.
Ø Easier verification of the e-Way Bill by officers.
Benefits
of e-Way Bill :
The major benefits are as
follows:
Ø The traders need not visit tax offices to collect and
submit the Way Bill forms as used to be done in VAT regimes in some states.
Ø Average waiting time at mobile squad reduces
drastically – As the verification of the e-Way Bill is done with the common
portal, it will speed up the process of verification and allowing the vehicle
to pass faster.
Ø Self-policing by traders. A trader while uploading
gives the identification of the buying trader who will also account the
transaction automatically.
Ø Environment friendly – The need of the paper form of
the multiple copies of way bill is eliminated. Hence, the tons of paper are
saved per day.
Ø Generation of GSTR-1 returns – GSTR-1 return of the
supplier is auto prepared, hence he need not have to upload the same.
Ø Officials saved of monotonous work collecting and
matching the manual way bill with the returns of the taxpayers.
Important E-way bill Dates :
The major GST recommendations with regards to the e-way bill are as follows:
1.
The nationwide e-way bill system will be
rolled out on a trial basis, latest by 16th January, 2018,
post which traders and transporters can start using this system on a voluntary
basis.
2.
The detailed rules for implementation of
the nationwide e-way bill system for inter-State movement of goods on a
compulsory basis will be notified with effect from 1st February, 2018.
3.
While the system to generate both
inter-State and intra-State e-way bill will be ready by 16th January, 2018, the
States may choose their own timings for implementation of e-way bill for
intra-State movement of goods on any date before 1st June, 2018. However, since
there are certain States which are already having a system of e-way bill for
intra-State as well as inter-State movement of goods, they may be expected to
be the early adopters of the national e-way bill system for intra-State
movement also.
4.
The final deadline to implement the
uniform system of e-way bill for inter-State as well as intra-State movement
across the country will be, the 1st of June, 2018 .
E-Way Bill
under GST :
E-way bill is an electronic document
generated on the GST portal evidencing movement of goods. It has two Components-Part
A comprising of details of GSTIN of recipient, place of delivery (PIN Code),
invoice or challan number and date, value of goods, HSN code, transport document
number (Goods Receipt Number or Railway Receipt Number or Airway Bill Number or
Bill of Lading Number) and reasons for transportation; and Part B comprising of
transporter details (Vehicle number).
As per Rule 138 of the CGST Rules, 2017,
every registered person who causes movement of goods (which may not necessarily
be on account of supply) of consignment value more than Rs. 50000/- is required
to furnish above mentioned information in part A of e-way bill. The part B containing
transport details helps in generation of e-way bill.
Who should
generate the e-way bill and why? :
E-way bill is to 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, E-way bill is to be generated by the Transporter.
Where neither the consignor nor consignee generates the e-way bill and the
value of goods is more than Rs.50,000/- it shall be the responsibility of the
transporter to generate it.
Further, it has been provided that where
goods are sent by a principal located in one State to a job worker located in
any other State, the e-way bill shall be generated by the principal irrespective
of the value of the consignment.
Also, where handicraft goods are
transported from one State to another by a person who has been exempted from the
requirement of obtaining registration, the e-way bill shall be generated by the
said person irrespective of the value of the consignment.
Purpose of
E-Way Bill :
E-way bill is a mechanism to ensure that
goods being transported comply with the GST Law and is an effective tool to
track movement of goods and check tax evasion.
Validity of
E-Way Bill :
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. For every 100 Km
thereafter, the validity will be additional one day from the relevant date. The
“relevant date” shall mean the date on which the e-way bill has been generated
and the period of validity shall be counted from the time at which the e-way
bill has been generated and each day shall be counted as twenty-four hours. In
general, the validity of the e-way bill cannot be extended. However,
Commissioner may extend the validity period only by way of issue of
notification for certain categories of goods which shall be specified later.
Further, if under circumstances of an
exceptional nature, the goods cannot be transported within the validity period
of the e-way bill, the transporter may generate another e-way bill after
updating the details in Part B of FORM GST EWB-01.
Finer Points :
An e-way bill has to be prepared for
every consignment where the value of the consignment exceeds Rs.50,000/-. Where
multiple consignments of varying values (per consignment) are carried in a
single vehicle, e-way bill needs to be mandatorily generated only for those consignments
whose value exceeds Rs.50,000/-. This does not however preclude the consignor /
consignee / transporter to generate e-way bills even for individual
consignments whose value is less than Rs.50000/- per consignment. For multiple
consignments being carried in the same vehicle, the transporter to prepare a
consolidated e-way bill by indicating serial number of each e-way bill, on the
common prior to commencement of transport of goods.
There is always a possibility that
multiple vehicles are used for carrying the same consignment to its destination
or unforeseen exigencies may require the consignments to be carried in a
different conveyance than the original one. For such situations, the rules
provide that any transporter transferring goods from one conveyance to another
in the course of transit shall, before such transfer and further movement of
goods, update the details of the conveyance in the e-way bill on the common
portal in FORM GST EWB-01.
The person in charge of a conveyance has
to carry the invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan, as the case may be;
and a copy of the e-way bill or the e-way bill number, either physically or
mapped to a Radio Frequency Identification Device embedded on to the conveyance
in such manner as may be notified by the Commissioner. However, where circumstances
so warrant, the Commissioner may, by notification, require the person-in-charge
of the conveyance to carry the following documents instead of the e-way bill:
(a) Tax invoice or bill of supply or
bill of entry; or
(b) A delivery challan, where the goods
are transported for reasons other than byway of supply.
It is also be noted that the
Commissioner may, by notification, require a class of transporters to obtain a unique
Radio Frequency Identification Device and get the said device embedded on to
the conveyance and map the e-way bill to the Radio Frequency Identification
Device prior to the movement of goods.
E-Way bill to
be issued whether for supply or otherwise :
E-way bill is to be issued irrespective
of whether the movement of goods is caused by reasons of supply or otherwise.
In respect of transportation for reasons other than supply, movement could be
in view of export/import, job-work, SKD or CKD, recipient not known, line
sales, sales returns, exhibition or fairs, for own use, sale on approval basis
etc.
Exceptions to
e-way bill requirement :
No e-way bill is required to be
generated in the following cases
a) Transport of goods as specified in
Annexure to Rule 138 of the CGST Rules, 2017
b) Goods being transported by a
non-motorised conveyance;
c) 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;
d) In respect of movement of goods
within such areas as are notified under rule 138(14) (d) of the SGST Rules, 2017
of the concerned State; and
e) Consignment value less than Rs. 50,000/-
Status of
Implementation across India :
Mandatory Implementation of e-Way Bills from 1st of February 2018, for inter-state movement of goods, is officially postponed to a date not notified followed by several reports of technical glitches faced on the nation-wide common e-Way Bill portal.
The following states have notified e-Way bill for mandatory inter-statetransport of goods:
- Karnataka
- Uttarakhand
- Rajasthan
- Kerala
Rest of the 25 States and 7 Union territories have joined the e-Way Bill league on trial Basis till 31st January 2018.
Starting from 1st February 2018, all the registered suppliers or the transporters/ recipients as the case may be belonging to these 25 States and 7 Union territories must compulsorily generate e-Way Bill for Inter-State movement of goods.
13 States have agreed to implement e-Way Bills for Intra-State movement of Goods with effect from 1st February 2018. These are:
- Andhra
Pradesh,
- Arunachal
Pradesh,
- Bihar,
- Haryana,
- Jharkhand,
- Karnataka,
- Kerala,
- Pondicherry
(UT),
- Sikkim,
- Tamil
Nadu,
- Telangana,
- Uttar
Pradesh and
- Uttarakhand.
CONCLUSIONS :
The e-way bill provisions aim to remove
the ills of the erstwhile way bill system prevailing under VAT in different
states, which was a major contributor to the bottlenecks at the check posts.
Moreover different states prescribed
different e-way bill rules which made compliance difficult. The e-way bill
provisions under GST will bring in a uniform e-way bill rule which will be applicable
throughout the country. The physical interface will pave way for digital
interface which will facilitate faster movement of goods. It is bound to
improve the turnaround time of vehicles and help the logistics industry by
increasing the average distances travelled, reducing the travel time as well as
costs.
REFERENCES :
1. Directorate
General of Taxpayer Services CENTRAL
BOARD OF EXCISE & CUSTOMS; www.cbec.gov.in
2. National Informatics Centre, New Delhi.
4.
https://ewaybillgst.gov.in/login.aspx
5.
https://cleartax.in
› GST › GST E Way Bill
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