As a 15-day trial of the nationwide e-way bill came to an end yesterday on January 31, the new e-way bill system rolls out today. Under this bill, every transporter will have to carry a system-generated bill to move from goods from one place to another. These bills can be generated from the GSTN portal. The system was introduced in order to bring in seamless inter-state movement of goods across all the states.
Although the e-way bill system was planned to be implemented earlier, it could not be done due to lack of the necessary IT infrastructure. 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, after a trial run would commence from January 16.
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, the government's premier science and technology organisation.
As the bill system rolls out today, here's everything you need to know about it:
1. Every registered person who is moving goods (which may not necessarily be on account of supply) of consignment value more than Rs 50,000 is required to furnish details of GSTIN of recipient, place of delivery, 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 transporter details (Vehicle number)
2. "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 CBEC said.
3. E-way bill can be generated by the consignor or the consignee themselves if the transportation is being done in their own/hired vehicle or by railways, air or vessel. If the goods are handed over to a transporter for transportation by road, the bill will be generated by the transporter. If neither the consignor nor the 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
