CHAPTER XVIII

Electronic Way Bill in GST

Introduction

A E-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”.

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 containingtransport details helps in generation of e-way bill.

Generating E-way bill

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.

Procedure to generate E-way bill

An e-way bill contains two parts-

• Part A to be furnished by the person who
  is causing movement of goods of consignment value exceeding Rs. 50,000/-
  and

• Part B (transport details) to be furnished by the person who is
  transporting the goods.

• Where the goods are transported by a registered
  person- whether as consignor or recipient, the said person shall have to
  generate the e-way bill by furnishing information in part B on the GST
  common portal.

• Where the e-way bill is not generated by registered person
  and the goods are handed over to the transporter for transportation by
  road, the registered person shall furnish the information relating to the
  transporter in Part B of FORM GST EWB-01 on the common
  portal and the e-way bill shall be generated by the transporter on the said
  portal on the basis of the information furnished by the registered person
  in Part A of FORM GST EWB-01.

A registered person may obtain an Invoice Reference Number from the common
portal by uploading, on the said portal, a tax invoice issued by him in
FORM GST INV-1 and produce the same for verification by
the proper officer in lieu of the tax invoice and such number shall be
valid for a period of thirty days from the date of uploading.

In the above case, the registered person will not have to upload the
information in Part A of FORM GST EWB-01 for
generation of e-way bill and the same shall be auto-populated by the
common portal on the basis of the information furnished inFORM GST
INV-1.

Upon generation of the e-way bill on the common portal, a unique e-way bill
number (EBN) generated by the common portal, shall be made available to the
supplier, the recipient and the transporter on the common portal.

The details of e-way bill generated shall be made available to the
recipient, if registered, on the common portal, who shall communicate his
acceptance or rejection of the consignment covered by the e-way bill. In
case, the recipient does not communicate his acceptance or rejection within
seventy-two hours of the details being made available to him on the common
portal, it shall be deemed that he has accepted the said details.

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.

Cancellation of E-Way Bill

Where an e-way bill has been generated under this rule, but goods are
either not transported or are not transported as per the details furnished
in the e-way bill, the e-way bill may be cancelled electronically on the
common portal, either directly or through a Facilitation Centre notified by
the Commissioner, within 24 hours of generation of the e-way bill. However,
an e-way bill cannot be cancelled if it has been verified in transit in
accordance with the provisions of rule 138B of the CGST Rules,
2017.

The facility of generation and cancellation of e-way bill will also be made
available through SMS.

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 by way 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 convey-
ance;

c)goods being transported from the port, airport, air car-
go complex and land customs station to an inland con- tainer 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/-

Consequences of non-conformance to E-way bill rules

If e-way bills, wherever required, are not issued in accordance with the
provisions contained in Rule 138 of the CGST Rules, 2017,
the same will be considered as contravention of rules. As per Section 122
of the CGST Act, 2017, a taxable person who transports any
taxable goods without the cover of specified documents (e-way bill is one
of the specified documents) shall be liable to a penalty of Rs. 10,000/- or
tax sought to be evaded (wherever applicable) whichever is greater. As per
Section 129 of CGST Act, 2017, where anyperson transports any
goods or stores any goods while they are in transit in contravention of the
provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder, all such goods and
conveyance used as a means of transport for carrying the said goods and
documents relating to such goods and conveyance shall be liable to
detention or seizure.

Enforcement

The Commissioner or an officer empowered by him in this behalf may
authorise the proper officer to intercept any conveyance to verify the
e-way bill or the e-way bill number in physical form for all inter-State
and intra State movement of goods.

The physical verification of conveyances may also be carried out by the
proper officer as authorised by the Commissioner or an officer empowered by
him in this behalf. Physical verification of a specific conveyance can also
be carried out by any officer, on receipt of specific information on
evasion of tax, after obtaining necessary approval of the Commissioner or
an officer authorised by him in this behalf.

A summary report of every inspection of goods in transit shall be recorded
online by the proper officer in Part A of FORM GST
EWB-03 within twenty-four hours of inspection and the
final report in Part B of FORM GST EWB-03 shall be
recorded within three days of such inspection.

Once physical verification of goods being transported on any conveyance has
been done during transit at one place within the State or in any other
State, no further physical verification of the said conveyance shall be
carried out again in the State, unless a specific information relating to
evasion of tax is made available subsequently.

Where a vehicle has been intercepted and detained for a period exceeding
thirty minutes, the transporter may upload the said information in FORM
GST EWB-04 on the common portal.

Recent Developments in respect of the E-Way Bill mechanism under GST.

Decision of GST Council : Inter-State e-way Bill to be made compulsory from 1 st of February, 2018;
system to be ready by 16th of January, 2018. The 24th meeting of the GST
Council held on 16.12.2017 discussed about the implementation of e-way Bill
system in the country. Till such time as National e-way Bill is ready, the
States were authorized to continue their own separate e-way Bill systems.
However, it was represented by the trade and transporters that this is
causing undue hardship in inter- State movement of goods and therefore,
bringing in an early all India system of e-way Bill has become a necessity.
The GST Council reviewed the progress of readiness of hardware and software
required for the introduction of nationwide e-way Bill system. After
discussions with all the states, the following decisions are taken :-

• The nationwide e-way Bill system will be ready to be rolled out on a
  trial basis latest by 16 th January, 2018. Trade and transporters can
  start using this system on a voluntary basis from 16 th January, 2018.

• 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 1st February, 2018. This will bring uniformity across the
  States for seamless inter-State movement of goods. Notification no.
  74/2017-Central Tax dated 29.12.2017 has been issued
  which notifies 1 st February, 2018 from which E-Way Bill Rules will come
  into force.

While the system for both inter-State and intaState e-way Bill generation
will be ready by 16 thJanuary, 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. There are certain States which are
already having system of e-way Bill for intra-State as well as inter-State
movement and some of those States can be early adopters of national e-way
Bill system for intra-State movement also. But in any case uniform system
of e-way Bill for inter-State as well as intra-State movement will be
implemented across the country by 1st June, 2018.

Conclusion

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.